New challenges in underprivileged regions calls for people-centred research for development

Summary in the original language of the document

The need for enhancing food production and availability in underprivileged regions of the world requires the attention of scientists. This paper explores the possibilities for rethinking Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) in the light of new challenges characterized by a high degree of scientific uncertainty and associated with intense political differences of interest. New challenges that particularly influence food production in underprivileged regions include global climate change, globalisation of food chains, and emerging low-carbon energy systems. We argue that by applying the people-centred Sustainable Livelihoods Approach as a research paradigm in AR4D, researchers may be more successful in producing knowledge that is useful to entrepreneurial smallholder farmers. Without such rethinking, traditional scientific approaches and logic may limit the contribution that agricultural AR4D can make toward the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals of halving extreme hunger by 2015 and improving the livelihoods of all.