Upcoming Workshop on "What Agricultural and Rural Transition Is Needed and Likely in Sub-Saharan Africa?"

AGRODEP member Evans Osabuohien is co-organinzing a workshop on September 21 as part of TROPENTAG 2016 in Vienna, Austria. The workshop will focus on "What agricultural and rural transition is needed and likely in sub-Sahara Africa?"

The workshop workshop will discuss several important strategic questions regarding agricultural and rural transformation in the region, including:

  • What is the relationship between urban and rural, agricultural and rural transformation (ART) and present macro-economic conditions?
  • Can there be a rural transformation without an agricultural one?
  • Can off-farm employment in rural and urban areas create enough jobs to absorb the huge amount of young people in the decades to come?
  • Can agricultural value chains (AVC) do that job? If so, what kind and speed of AVC development is needed?
  • What role can large-scale agricultural land investments play?

The workshop is being organized as part of the collaboration between the German Development Institute (Bonn, Germany) and Covenant University (Ota, Nigeria). One of the aims of the workshop is to stimulate discourse to kick-off a joint research project on "Agricultural and Rural Transformation in Africa: Re-visiting the Evidence and Enhancing Policy." This project is expected to culminate in edited book and/or special issue in a relevant journal.