Biofuels and the Globalization of Risk: The Biggest Change in North-South Relationships Since Colonialism?

By James Smith

We are facing a future shaped by uncertainty. ‘Perfect storms’ of food and energy insecurity, the threat of climate change, and growing interdependencies are generating global risks of irreconcilable complexity. This coupling of uncertainty and complexity creates environmental, economic and social risks; and so-called solutions risk exacerbating problems rather than alleviating them.

Agricultural Innovation and Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Tracing Connections and Missing Links

Julius Mugwagwa and Simon Outram edited a Special Issue of the Journal of International Development (Vol 22, Issue 3), published in April 2010. Here, Julius describes some of the background to this issue:

With a special emphasis on agricultural biotechnologies, the special issue examines from different perspectives why advanced expertise and technological availability have seemingly had only a minor impact on the productivity of agriculture and hence food security in Sub-Saharan Africa.