Most African livelihoods depend on agriculture. According to the World Development Report (2008) agriculture employs 65 percent of the population and contributes on average about 30 percent to GDP of most African countries. While these numbers seem impressive, Africans have repeatedly faced periods of food insecurity. African food production is still predominantly in hands of small-scale farmers, often on subsistence basis. Most of these subsistence farmers have poor or no access to buying and selling markets. This raises one main question: How can markets help to improve farmers’ livelihood and food security?

The panellists will be discussing:
What is the importance of markets (local, regional, global) to small-scale farmers?
How can farmers and their families benefit best from partially producing for and buying from markets?
How can agricultural value chains be made more efficient and environmentally sustainable?
How can development cooperation contribute to agricultural development more effectively?