Development policies | TableDebates

Bunches of asparagus in blue bands. Photo by Donald Teel on Unsplash

Coca and asparagus: How a US drug policy led to soaring water scarcity in Peru

Intrigued by a news story about smuggled cocaine seized in a shipment of asparagus, researcher Azam Lashkari explored an unlikely connection between a booming agro-industry in Peru and an international effort to control cross-continental drug trade.Azam is a postdoctoral scientist and mathematical agroecologist at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK. Her research is concerning the role of climate change on food production. She uses data and mathematical models to explain and predict crop response to increasing temperature and drought. Beside her main research, she is interested in socio-economic aspects of climate change and human behaviour on environment.

Picture of workers in a field in Africa

Decolonizing African Agriculture: Food Security, Agroecology and the Need for Radical Transformation

William Mosely explores why so many approaches to food and farming policy fail in Sub-Saharan Africa. He argues that it’s down to Western, colonial agricultural science that is infused with power and politics. This version is open-access.

Cartoon of workers in a field

Agricultural Science as International Development

Historians and sociologists explore the influence of CGIAR, a consortium of national governments, foreign aid agencies, philanthropies, United Nations agencies, and international financial institutions, and its affiliated international research centres. It examines whether and how science-led development has changed the practices of farmers, researchers, and policymakers in five continents.

FAO report front cover with several SDG icons in a concentric ring set over an agricultural background. Title is "Achieving SDG2 Without Breaching the 1.5C Threshold".

Achieving SDG2 Without Breaching the 1.5C Threshold

This report was released by the FAO during COP28 in December of 2023 and details a global road map to agri-food systems transformation through climate action whilst achieving food security and nutrition.

Fair and equitable benefit-sharing in agriculture (Open Access)

This open access book explores the emergence and development of the legal concept of fair and equitable benefit-sharing, and its application in agriculture, covering agricultural research and development, land governance and grassroots initiatives.

Food safety & quality systems in developing countries

This book provides technical information on food safety and quality in developing countries, using case studies of various types of food including spices, cassava, fruits and vegetables and beverages.

Sustainable agricultural development: an economic perspective

This book sets out an accessible framework for understanding the role of agriculture in sustainable development, focusing on agriculture as a complex system with many tradeoffs and synergies.

Food security policy, evaluation and impact assessment

This book sets out the importance of assessing food security policies, such as to address failures of past food policies, and gives practical guidance on how to use evidence to analyse policies.

Image: Hafiz Issadeen, Fisherfolk - Beruwala, Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic

Featured articles

Comment: Towards a sustainable and equitable blue economy

This commentary article sets out five priorities for developing the so-called “blue economy” (i.e. ocean-based activities such as fishing, aquaculture, tourism, seabed mining and shipping) in a way that is both environmentally sustainable and socially equitable. The article notes that human activities are already negatively affecting ocean ecosystems and that future economic development of the oceans may have further, sometimes poorly understood, impacts on both the environment and people.