January 13th, 25 Agri-ProFocus member organisations came together to discuss a common knowledge agenda for food security. It was the first official meeting of the Agri-ProFocus Food Security platform. Which choices should we make to contribute to improving food security and sustainability?
During the Agri-ProFocus Core Group Meeting of July 2011, the participants decided to develop a joint knowledge agenda on the theme ‘ Food Security and Climate Change’. The challenge, so far, has been to find out how.
Frans Verberne (ETC Foundation) and Simone van Vugt (WUR-CDI) produced a discussion paper that gives a good overview of the actual state of affairs. The next step, then, was to develop a questionnaire to make an inventory of the food security-related activities of Agri-ProFocus’ members and their resulting knowledge questions.
During the event of January 13th, the outcome of this inventory was presented by Jan-Willem Eggink (Agri-ProFocus). In addition, 5 members gave short presentations of their experiences and suggestions for further research on food security:
ICCO on Food Security
HIVOS on Revitalising Rain fed Agriculture in India
IICD on ICT for food security
ETC on Local Food Security Plans
CIDIN on farm-firm relationships
The wide variety of activities and knowledge questions spurred a lively marketplace of specific knowledge, experiences, capacities and tools. A joint knowledge agenda, however, could not easily be defined. Therefore, the organising committee proposed to formulate 3-5 food security-related themes, based on the answers in the questionnaires and the discussions from the meeting. Around each of these themes, communities of practice will be developed.
For those of you who are interested in food security issues: you are heartily invited to subscribe to the Agriculture, Food security and Climate Ning page. The platform will use this interactive website as a tool for knowledge exchange and brokering. On the Ning, subscribers can post any news, documents and links they want to share and also start discussions or post a specific question in the forum section.