A one day Regional Workshop will be held on 23 April 2010 at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT). The workshop is being organized by AIT’s School of Environment Resources and Development (SERD).
Venue : AIT Conference Center
Timing : 9.00 -17.00 hours
Background
Small holdings in agriculture in Asia are facing new challenges as a result of the pressure being exerted by several driving forces including climatic variability, rural-urban migration, aging population and technological innovations. This calls for reforming the existing institutional structures, public policy and governance regimes or creating new ones so as to address these challenges.
In the short-medium term, much has been done to highlight the importance of small-holder agriculture as the main driver of further productivity gains and global food security. This has been valid in many environments. However, in the slightly longer-term view (20 years or so) there are several reasons to suggest the need for a deeper analysis of how small dominant Asian agriculture can eventually transition away from the current resource-intensive, small-holder model to a pro-poor and environmentally non-disruptive agriculture.
With this objective, the AIT is pursuing a research, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, to understand the process of agrarian transformation taken place in the Asian context, with particular reference to five countries, viz., Bangladesh, India, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.
The main agenda of the workshop is to offer a platform for presentation of the five country papers on the theme, as prepared by the selected national experts, followed by detailed discussions and a plenary session. It is expected that the workshop will provide a comprehensive understanding of the agrarian transformation taking place in the Asian region. The workshop also intends to generate useful insights towards evolving future perspectives in identifying potential research areas needing rigorous empirical investigations in the specific regional/ country contexts.
Interested AIT staff and students are cordially invited. For further details, please contact:
Dr. P.K. Viswanathan ([email protected]) or at AIT extension no. 5618.
