Pro-poor development in low-income countries : food, agriculture, trade and environement. 106th EAAE Seminar, October 23-27, 2007, Montpellier-Palavas, France

The purpose of this seminar is to investigate the potentials and challenges that development policy and institutions in the food and agriculture sector of low-income countries hold for poverty reduction. The majority of the poor in low-income countries depend directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihood. However, the lack of access to improved technologies, the high transaction costs in domestic as well as export markets, as well as inadequate institutions and infrastructure constrain the poors¿ production and income-earning opportunities in the food and agricultural sector. Many of the poor depend on unsustainable agricultural practices, leading to local as well as global environmental issues such as deforestation, biodiversity loss, soil erosion and desertification. Since 1989, the European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE) organizes a seminar on a tri-annual basis that focuses on agricultural and rural development issues in the developing world. The main objective of this seminar is to bring together economists and other scientists working in the field of rural and agricultural development in low-income countries in order to discuss the impacts of research, development policies and institutional change concerning food, agriculture, and the environment on the pace of poverty reduction. This seminar will focus on pro-poor development policies and institutions in the food and agricultural sector that offer significant and untapped potentials for more equitable pro-poor economic growth, particularly in low-income countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Seminar will place emphasis on pro-poor development policies and institutions that promote the smallholder sector in low-income countries by offering improved income opportunities, for example in high value food chains, renewable bio-energy, and rural diversification. The majority of the poor in low-income countries depend on agriculture for their livelihood. In the past two decades, donors as well as national governments in low-income countries did not give sufficient attention to the potential of agriculture and rural areas, neither for poverty reduction nor for addressing the increasing environmental challenges such as desertification, deforestation, and biodiversity loss. (Résumé d'auteur)