DESCRIPTION:

The talk would focus on the market development role of national food reserve agencies in low and middle income countries. National Food Reserve Agencies also known as Strategic Grain Reserves (SGR) have a very contentious history owing to their role as instruments for ‘undesirable’ government intervention in agricultural markets. This talk will briefly touch upon the challenges of agricultural market development, the role of small holder farmers and the implications on food and nutrition security. It will then present emerging evidence from West Africa on the transition in SGR policy and examine the increasing recognition of the need for institutionalized catalytic intervention to support small holder farmers. The evidence for this talk is based on the author’s ongoing work for the Partnership for Child Development, Imperial College London, an organisation which works with governments in Ghana, Nigeria and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa to implement school feeding programmes which source their produce locally from smallholder farmers. These programmes known as Home Grown School Feeding have been described as a “win-win”, not only do they ensure farmers of a reliable market and income but they see children are well-fed, able to learn and more likely to stay in school.

BIOGRAPHY:

Samrat Singh is a research associate in food and agriculture policy at the Partnership for Child Development, Imperial College London. He holds degrees in social sciences, law and development studies. His current work is primarily focussed on agricultural commodity procurement, school feeding and national food reserve agencies in SSA and includes research and technical assistance. Prior to joining Imperial College he worked in the area of local governance and public service delivery and practiced law in the Supreme Court of India.