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Agricultural Markets Food Security

How Can Agriculture and Trade Lead to Livelihoods, Food Security and Development?

This monograph summarises analysis around ten themes of importance to development in Eastern and Southern Africa. The themes range from the role of agriculture to that of governments, donors and CSOs, and also include international and regional trade, education and capacity building needs, and multi-stakeholder consultations and coordination. It offers comprehensive and yet concrete suggestions for action.

This monograph presents succinctly, the main findings of CUTS’ country research studies on trade and agriculture issues in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The 15-month research was undertaken under the FEATS project and adopted an inclusive approach by involving relevant country stakeholders in each stage of the studies. While the overall focus of research was on trade, agriculture and livelihoods, it also examined the links between agricultural productivity and trade facilitation in landlocked countries of Malawi, Uganda and Zambia, and between food security and regional trade in Kenya and Tanzania.

The monograph summarises the analysis around ten themes that range from the importance of agriculture to the role of governments, donors and CSOs. The themes also include international and regional (including informal) trade, education and capacity building needs, and multi-stakeholder consultations and coordination. This presentation brings out all the relevant issues and their interlinkages. It also offers comprehensive and yet concrete suggestions for action by all concerned. This holistic approach and inter-weaving of crisp analysis and specific recommendations should be particularly useful for policy makers.

The overall message is that agriculture and trade can be engines for inclusive growth and development in African countries. This will, however, require understanding the complex interlinkages, crafting comprehensive policies and strategies, and taking coordinated and sustained actions on several fronts.

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