Early in the new century a consensus on agricultural and rural development emerged. This provided renewed impetus to efforts to boost both agricultural development and the rural non-farm economy, in a context of ever closer rural-urban linkages and globalisation. Governments and donors have committed themselves to support this, but the challenge has been to translate themes into practical policy.

For two years the Future Agricultures Consortium, supported by the UK Department for International Development, has been investigating how to do this, primarily in Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi.

This series of meetings, hosted by ODI, will present the results of this work. It will also include the launch of the World Bank's 2008 World Development Report (WDR) entitled 'Agriculture for Development', as well as two sessions on the way forward and whether or not emerging challenges from biofuels, climate change, and the growth of China and India imply that the agenda needs radical revision.