KIT at Contested Agronomy conference

Helena Posthumus and Bart de Steenhuijsen Piters are participating in the ‘Contested Agronomy’ conference organised by Wageningen University and the Institute for Development Studies at Brighton, UK. Some 80 professionals discuss and contest the role of agronomy in improving rural people’s livelihoods.

Bart delivered a key note that ‘shook the tree’: presenting results from a study by KIT he, amongst others, concluded that the rural poor feature prominently in finding proposals, but are strikingly absent in impact evaluation reports. Conventional agronomy has not done much for the rural poor, and a drastic change of approach is needed to make a contribution to reducing poverty, in particular by creating opportunities for youth and women.

Download paper: Enhancing rural labour productivity: reaching the rural poor