Thursday 26 May 2011

India, Africa and Food Security: Between the Summits,

09 March 2011. SOUTH- SOUTH COOPERATION. This is a report of a conference held on the 10th and 11th of January 2011. Organized by: the Centre for African Studies University of Mumbai.

The conference on South- South Cooperation (SSC): India, Africa and Food Security: Between the Summits, was organized in collaboration with Nordic Africa Institute (Uppsala, Sweden) and the World Trade Centre with support from the Ministry of External Affairs (Government of India) and the South-South Cooperation Unit (UNDP, New York).

The India-Africa Framework for Cooperation, adopted at the end of the India-Africa Forum Summit April 9, 2008, at New Delhi, identified the development of sustainable agriculture as a key priority in the burgeoning partnership between India and Africa.


The scholarly papers presented at the conference touched upon themes spanning a number of disciplines that cut across; history, gender studies, politics, media, economics, sociology  and development studies. The conference  provided an opportunity for  dialogue between parties that held  diametrically  opposing views on a number of issues related to land and agriculture and  the phenomenon of  alleged  ‘land grabbing’ by foreign firms, including Indian companies, which has been controversial in the past and continues to be hotly debated.

The conference proceedings aims to offer policy oriented solutions and provide for better informed investments and improved relationships between the countries of the  global South as we move into the next decade. The research papers that were presented will be compiled in a publication that will fill in the academic gap/literature on the subject of Indian investments in agriculture in Africa.


Conference Report, SSC- India, Africa and Food Security January 2011.pdf