Stanford University

Agricultural trade

Revolutionizing Food Security in Africa

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Stanford’s Center on Food Security and the Environment launches new symposium series focused on global food security with panel exploring Africa’s agricultural potential.

Food security experts from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) will gather at Stanford for meetings and a symposium on transforming food production on that continent. R.S.V.P by Nov. 28 for Symposium: Can Africa rise to the challenge of feeding itself in the 21st century? | Nov. 29

Organized by the Center on Food Security and the Environment (FSE), the Nov. 29 symposium is the first in the center’s new Global Food Security Symposium series. Panel members include visiting AGRA board members, who will examine the challenges, strategies, and possible solutions for catalyzing and sustaining an inclusive agriculture transformation in Africa. This symposium marks the third series established by FSE convening thought leaders addressing global food security issues.

Afflicted by conflict, political upheaval, and extreme weather patterns Africa continues to experience the highest occurrence of food insecurity. However, with over 60 percent of the worlds uncultivated but fertile land, there is significant room for improvement. AGRA formed in 2006 to fulfill the vision that Africa can feed itself and the world. As an alliance led by Africans with roots in farming communities across the continent, they work to understand the unique needs of farmers and offer sustainable solutions designed to boost production.

In a region with 27.4 percent of the population currently experiencing food insecurity, creating a sustainable agricultural revolution remains a key solution to improving food security across the area. Moderated by Ertharin Cousin, previous World Food Programme director, with 25 years of experience on hunger, food, and resilience strategies, the panel will explore how an agricultural transformation in Africa can sustain a growing population, relieve hunger, generate jobs, improve social cohesion, and create global exports.

Panel members include:
Ertharin Cousin (moderator), Payne Distinguished Lecturer at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Visiting Fellow at the Center on Food Security and the Environment, former US Ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture in Rome.


Agnes Kalibata, the President of AGRA and former Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources of Rwanda.

Kanayo F. Nwanze, the immediate past president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), winner of the Africa Food Prize in 2016, AGRA board member.

Rajiv Shah, Rockefeller Foundation President, former Administer of USAID (2010-15) where he led bipartisan reform and expansion of US efforts combating global food insecurity. During his previous work at the Gates Foundation he helped launched AGRA.

Usha Barwale Zehr, Director and Chief Technology Officer at Maharashtra – one of India’s largest and most successful multinational seed companies – and AGRA board member.

This is the first installment of the Global Food Security Symposium series hosted by Stanford University's Center on Food Security and the Environment and generously supported by Zach Nelson and Elizabeth Horn. FSE is a joint initiative of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

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Can Africa rise to the challenge of feeding itself in the 21st century?

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Rebecca Louise Perlman

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CDDRL Predoctoral Scholar, 2017-18
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Rebecca was a 2017-18 Pre-doctoral Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, as well as a Dissertation Fellow at the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences. She studies international political economy with a focus on regulation, trade, and the role of international institutions. Rebecca is working on a book project that explores the origins of health and safety regulations. She develops a theory specifying the conditions under which firms are able to use health and safety regulations in order to block international competition. The theory produces the surprising conclusion that innovative firms benefit from and actively seek regulations that rule some of their own products unsafe. Rebecca has received funding from the Horowitz Foundation and Stanford’s Europe Center. She also received a Stanford Graduate Research Opportunity Grant. She holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Her undergraduate degree is from Princeton University, where she majored in politics and graduated summa cum laude and phi beta kappa.

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Satellite detection of rising maize yield heterogeneity in the U.S. Midwest

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The future trajectory of crop yields in the United States will influence food supply and land use worldwide. We examine maize and soybean yields for 2000–2015 in the Midwestern U.S. using a new satellite-based dataset on crop yields at 30m resolution. We quantify heterogeneity both within and between fields, and find that the difference between average and top yielding fields is typically below 30% for both maize and soybean, as expected in advanced agricultural regions. In most counties, within-field heterogeneity is at least half as large as overall heterogeneity, illustrating the importance of non-management factors such as soil and landscape position. Surprisingly, we find that yield heterogeneity is rising in maize, both between and within fields, with average yield differences between the best and worst soils more than doubling since 2000. Heterogeneity trends were insignificant for soybean. The findings are consistent both with recent adoption of precision agriculture technologies and with recent trends toward denser sowing in maize, which disproportionately raise yields on better soils. The results imply that yield gains in the region are increasingly derived from the more productive land, and that sub-field precision management of nutrients and other inputs is increasingly warranted.

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Environmental Research Letters
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David Lobell
George Azzari
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TTIP and Agriculture: Another Transatlantic Chicken War?

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In 1963 the United States and Europe (EU) were engaged in the infamous Chicken War over new tariffs introduced in Europe. Five decades later, tensions over chicken, now relating to food safety issues, still plague U.S.-EU trade relations in agriculture, and are playing an unfortunate role in influencing European public opinion in the debate about a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). At first glance it would appear that there is nothing new under the sun in U.S.-EU trade relations in the field of food and agriculture.

 

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Stefan Tangermann
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31(2)
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Joann de Zegher selected as SAWIT Challenge Finalist

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Joann de Zegher is one of nine selected as a SAWIT Challenge Finalist. She will be pitching her sustainable palm oil solution in Jakarta, Indonesia November 17-18, 2016.

FSE is excited to announce that graduate student, Joann de Zegher, is one of the nine innovators chosen in the SAWIT Challenge to pitch her solution to help independent smallholder farmers produce palm oil sustainably. She will present her idea to international businesses, government, and NGO leaders in Jakarta, Indonesia November 17-18, 2016.

The nine finalists submitted their ideas to solve the biggest challenges facing independent smallholder palm oil farmers in Indonesia: financing, farming inputs and best practices, mapping and land tenureship, market information, as well as product traceability and transparency. The innovations are designed to make sustainable, more profitable palm oil production.

The SAWIT Challenge is run by Smallholders Advancing with Technology and Innovation (SAWIT), a partnership between the Oil Palm Smallholders Union, and the Indonesia Business Council for Sustainable Development, with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

De Zegher’s solution offers a substantial price incentive to smallholder farmers who comply with buyer sustainability policies, but only passes on a very small portion of the cost to buyers. The innovation leverages the simple fact that small farmers and large buyers have substantially different cash flow needs. It also helps to shorten and strengthen the palm supply chain from smallholder farmers to mill.

 

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Taiwan and the Trans-Pacific Partnership: A Re-appraisal

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This half-day symposium will bring together scholars and practitioners to reconsider Taiwan's prospects for entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership in light of the conclusion of negotiations in October 2015 and the election of a new president and legislature in Taiwan in January 2016. It will revisit the themes and conclusions of the Taiwan Democracy Project's 2013 annual conference.

9:00-9:15am: Introductions

9:15-11:00am. Panel 1: The Politics of Trade and Development in Taiwan

Stephen Tan, Vice President of the Cross-Strait Policy Association, Taipei

Kristy Hsu, Director, Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center, Chung Hua Institution for Economic Research, Taipei

Chung-ming Kuan, Chair Professor, Department of Finance and Director of CRETA at National Taiwan University, and former Minister of the National Development Council

Hung-mao Tien, President of the Institute for National Policy Research, and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Taiwan

11:00-11:15. Break

11:15-12:45. Panel 2: International Perspectives on the TPP: Implications for Regional Development and Geopolitics

Vinod Aggarwal, Professor of Political Science and Faculty Affiliate of the Center for East Asian Studies, UC Berkeley

Nicholas Hope, Director of the China Program at the Stanford Center for International Development

Thomas Gold, Professor of Sociology and Faculty Affiliate of the Center for East Asian Studies, UC Berkeley

 

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