Prajateerpu: A Citizens? Jury / Scenario Workshop on Food Futures for Andhra Pradesh, India

The report relates the proceedings of a one-week workshop held in Andhra Pradesh, India. The workshop was designed to facilitate a local participatory process to encourage debate in policy choices on food futures, following the publication of an Andhra Pradesh state-produced plan called ?Vision 2020?. With the aim of eradicating poverty and building sustainable livelihoods, Vision 2020 outlined the ways in which the state was rethinking its approach to farming, land use and marketing. External agencies including The World Bank and the UK Department for International Development supported the plan. The proposals were set to transform methods of production and as such, in a state where the majority of the population work in agriculture, it was important to include the voices of those who were set to gain or lose most through the proposed changes. It was in this context that the UK-based Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) helped facilitate the workshop to see how small farmers and rural people could help shape the developing policy scenarios. The members of the jury opposed many of the Vision 2020 proposals (including displacing large numbers of people in land consolidation moves, GM crops and mechanisation), and instead called for self-reliance and community control over resources. The event ignited an international debate over the use of participatory approaches, with a whole host of issues emerging in the debate. This publication outlines the methodology of the citizens’ jury and follows the processes and suggested outcomes of the event.