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61. The Road to Olive Farming: Challenges to developing the economy of olive oil in the West Bank

Author:
Lara El-Jazairi
Publication Date:
10-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
For thousands of years, the olive tree has been an integral part of the Palestinian landscape: a symbol of Palestinian identity, culture and tradition. The majority of Palestinian farmers are at least partially dependent on olive cultivation. The current profitability of olive farming is evident in the increase in recent years of farmers who are planting new trees and tending to their orchards. In a good year, the olive oil sector contributes over $100 million income annually to some of the poorest communities. Olive cultivation also has strong social and political aspects, as the planting of olive orchards is often an attempt to prevent the confiscation of land by Israel or settlers and to protect Palestinian livelihoods.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, Humanitarian Aid, and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
Palestine and Arab Countries

62. Hunger in the Sahel: A permanent emergency? Ensuring the next drought will not cause another humanitarian crisis

Publication Date:
12-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
In 2010, more than 10 million people, mainly women and children, were victims of the food crisis in the Sahel. Nearly 500,000 severely malnourished children were taken into care between January and November 2010 in Niger, Chad, Mali and Burkina Faso. Most livestock in the Sahel was decimated. The images and the stories of hunger harked back to the food crisis of 2005 and the famines in 1973-1974 and 1984-1985.
Topic:
Agriculture, Human Welfare, Humanitarian Aid, and Food
Political Geography:
Africa

63. Investing in Poor Farmers Pays: Rethinking how to invest in agriculture

Author:
Emily Alpert and Melinda Smale
Publication Date:
06-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
In July 2008, world food prices reached their highest peak since the early 1970s. Food stocked on grocery store shelves was out of reach. Riots ensued. Millions were afflicted. Another 100 million people were pushed into the ranks of the hungry, raising the total to nearly one billion worldwide. And these numbers could climb again as food prices remain high, and continue to rise in many local markets.
Topic:
Agriculture, Poverty, Foreign Aid, and Foreign Direct Investment
Political Geography:
Africa and Asia

64. What Happened to the Seasons? Changing seasonality may be one of the major impacts of climate change

Author:
Steve Jennings and John Magrath
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
The timing of rain, and intra-seasonal rainfall patterns are critical to smallholder farmers in developing countries. Seasonality influences farmers' decisions about when to cultivate and sow and harvest. It ultimately contributes to the success or failure of their crops. Worryingly, therefore, farmers are reporting that both the timing of rainy seasons and the pattern of rains within seasons are changing. These perceptions of change are striking in that they are geographically widespread and because the changes are described in remarkably consistent terms. In this paper, we relate the perceptions of farmers from several regions(East Asia, South Asia, Southern and East Africa, and Latin America) of how seasons are changing, and in some cases, how once distinct seasons appear to be disappearing altogether, and the impacts that these changes are having. We then go on to ask two critical questions. Firstly, do meteorological observations support farmers' perceptions of changing seasonality? Secondly, to what extent are these changes consistent with predictions from climate models? We conclude that changing seasonality may be one of the major impacts of climate change faced by smallholder farmers in developing countries over the next few decades. Indeed, this may already be the case. Yet it is relatively unexplored in the literature. We also suggest some of the key adaptation responses that might help farmers cope with these changes.
Topic:
Agriculture, Climate Change, Development, and Energy Policy
Political Geography:
Africa, East Asia, and Latin America

65. Harnessing Agriculture for Development

Author:
Arabella Fraser
Publication Date:
10-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Harnessing Agriculture for Development is the result of a process of research and consultation conducted within Oxfam International from the end of 2007 to mid 2008, before the full impact of the current financial crisis was felt across the developing world. It is being published at a time when we face a particularly uncertain and unstable future, with heightened perceptions of risk, but when we also have a unique opportunity to generate the kinds of policy change required to achieve a new global balance.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, and Food

66. Bridging the Divide: The reform of global food security governance

Author:
Chris Leather
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Another World Food Summit is being held in Rome to discuss world food security, in the midst of a chronic global food crisis in which one billion (one in six) people go to bed hungry every day of their shortened lives. During the two-and-a-half days of the Summit, more than 60,000 people, 70 per cent of them children, will die of hunger-related causes.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Food, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Rome

67. Resilience: Working with vulnerable farmers towards climate change adaptation and food security

Author:
Jules Siedenburg, Kimberly Pfeifer, and Kelly Hauser
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Worldwide, 1.7 billion small-scale farmers and pastoralists are highly vulnerable to climate change impacts. They live on marginal rural lands characterised by conditions such as low rainfall, sloping terrain, fragile soils, and poor market access, primarily in Africa and Asia. Such farmers are vulnerable because their farms depend directly on rainfall and temperature, yet they often have little savings and few alternative options if their crops fail or livestock die.
Topic:
Agriculture, Climate Change, and Food
Political Geography:
Africa and Asia

68. Aid for Agriculture: Promises and the Reality on the Ground

Author:
Jean-Denis Crola
Publication Date:
11-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Between June 2008 and July 2009, over 40 billion dollars were pledged by the main donor countries to provide emergency response to the food crisis and to sustainably invest in agriculture in developing countries. In addition, the donor and beneficiary countries, the United Nations, the World Bank and other actors called for better coordination of interventions on the ground, as well as increased investment in national strategies and policies. These two elements were identified as essential points for action in the joint statement on food security made at L'Aquila, during the last G8 summit.
Topic:
Agriculture, Humanitarian Aid, and Poverty
Political Geography:
United Nations

69. The Missing Middle in Agricultural Finance: Relieving the capital constraint on smallholder groups and other agricultural SMEs

Author:
Alan Doran, Ntongi McFadyen, and Robert C Vogel
Publication Date:
12-2009
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
So far the private sector has made only small progress in responding to the needs of, and opportunities in, the market segment of small-scale agricultural enterprises, after the widespread withdrawal of the paradigm of government funded and controlled agricultural development. The unmet needs for finance of producer associations and other forms of SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises) in agriculture, for transactions in the size range £5,000 to £500,000, constitute the missing middle. The crucial issue is how to overcome the barriers to scaling-up the private sector's response.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, Poverty, and Third World

70. Rethinking Food Security in Humanitarian Response

Author:
Daniel Maxwell, Patrick Webb, Jennifer Coates, and James Wirth
Publication Date:
04-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
This paper serves as a background document to help frame discussion at the Food Security Forum in Rome, April 2008. It focuses on policy and institutional reform issues centered on the links between chronic and transitory crises. The first part of the paper provides an overview of trends and future challenges. The second considers effectiveness of the “humanitarian system” in addressing food insecurity and whether the current institutional set-up is fit for service. The third part examines links between “chronic” and “transitory” food insecurity, and whether current approaches to prevention and response appropriately bridge these two forms of vulnerability. A concluding section highlights key issues, raising questions on gaps in the humanitarian system's analytical capacity, its programmatic practices, and on food security policy more broadly.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Humanitarian Aid, and International Cooperation