As of March 2026, this website is no longer being updated. I now work mainly on climate issues, especially in Brighton and Hove, and new work can be found on the website of Climate:Change, our independent think-tank on socially inclusive action in the City: www.climatechangebh.org.uk.
Meanwhile, however, this website has over 850 entries, mostly representing my work on international development from 2010-2025. Among much else, there are over 50 book reviews, more than 20 papers and training cases on bridging research and policy and on managing think-tanks, nearly 100 articles on climate change, and many papers on other topics, including aid, food security and nutrition, and the future of international development. See ‘Topics and Themes’ for more details. I can be reached at sm@simonmaxwell.net.
Launching the DFID consultation ‘New Directions for Agriculture in Reducing Poverty’
Launching the DFIDDepartment for International Development consultation ‘New Directions for Agriculture in Reducing Poverty’, paper prepared for a DFIDDepartment for International Development e-consultation from 14 April to 28 May 2004
This ought to be straightforward – but isn’t. The conventional wisdom will no longer do. We need new thinking about the role of agriculture in developing countries.
The strongly established conventional wisdom is that agriculture is the primary motor of growth and poverty reduction in the poorest countries - specifically small farm agriculture, specifically small farm agriculture devoted to growing modern variety cereal staples, and specifically, though not always exclusively, small farm agriculture growing modern variety staples in relatively high potential and well-connected areas, with both water control options and access to markets. The evidence to support these propositions comes from farming systems analysis, production function calculations, growth decomposition, and partial and general equilibrium analysis at village, regional and national level................. (see link in title for full article)