Agrifood System Transformation

FSG documents the rapid changes underway in agrifood systems, from farm to fork. Key drivers of this transformation are rapid growth in per capita incomes and urbanization. These drivers result in the rapid rise in demand for food through markets (as opposed to own production), and the rising demand for processed and perishable foods (as opposed to grains and staple root crops).

The combination of these forces is creating enormous agribusiness opportunities for local entrepreneurs, which promise to make important contributions to continued growth and to employment. Thus, a special focus of work is on the challenges to promoting the ability of small- and medium-size food processing firms to compete in local and regional markets.

Publications and Presentations

A Cross-Country Summary of Fertilizer Subsidy Programs in Sub-Saharan Africa

Published on February 11, 2020
Melinda Smale, Véronique Thériault, 2018. Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research Paper 169.
Rapid Transformations of Asian Food Systems - VIDEO

Published on November 16, 2018
A special lecture by T. Reardon for the 26th annual conference of the Agricultural Economics Research Association, India, November 16, 2018 (0:44)
Food Systems Transformation in West Africa: Implications for Jobs and Policy

Published on June 18, 2018
Tom Reardon and Saweda Liverpool-Tasie, OECD Seminar: Urbanization, Food Economy, Employment, and Women, Paris, France, June 18, 2018
Africa's Evolving Employment Trends

Published on March 1, 2018
Yeboah, Kwame, and T. S. Jayne. 2018. Africa's Evolving Employment Trends, Journal of Development Studies, 54(5)
Do Farmers Value Seeds of Different Quality Differently? Evidence from Willingness to Pay Experiments in Tanzania and Ghana

Published on February 28, 2018
IDWP 158. Mywish K. Maredia, Robert Shupp, Edward Opoku, Fulgence Mishili, Byron Reyes, Paul Kusolwa, Francis Kusi, and Abdul Kudra. March 2018