The Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC) has been exploring what needs to be done to get different forms of agriculture – food/cash crops, livestock/pastoralism, smallholdings/contract farming/large holdings – moving on a track of increasing productivity and competitiveness. Through a series of debates, dialogues and conferences – at local, national and global levels – the Consortium has been asking in particular: what are the challenges for institutional design and wider policy processes, from local to global arenas?

In partnership with the FAC, ODI is launching a new series of discussions about timely agriculture topics with key presentations by experts. Through this new series of seminars, FAC and ODI have teamed up to encourage dialogue and the sharing of good practice by policy makers and opinion formers on the role of agriculture in broad based growth.

This Agricultural futures in Africa series will capture some of the urgent and emerging issues for African farmers and policy making including:

• African agriculture: a time for cautious optimism?
• What technology for African agriculture?
• Failing or emerging rural markets? Falling into poverty traps ... or stepping out of them?
• Land matters: small farmer, large farmer, land grabber ...
• Agriculture-led development in an urbanising world?