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JAN
24
Eye on Africa: Cynthia Donovan and David Tschirley, "Dynamics of African Food Systems and Diets"
Date:
Thursday, 24 Jan 2019
Time:
12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Location:
International Center, Room 201
Department:
African Studies Center
Event Details:

About the Talk:

Modern African food markets are in transition, and MSU researchers, are working with their collaborators to understand the changes, the effects those changes have on the economy, and on diets of urban and rural populations. Demographic changes underpin many of the changes, with migration and urban population growth as well as rising incomes.  Even in rural areas, Africans are buying and eating more processed foods. How can markets transition to continue to meet the demands with local and regional production, marketing and processing?

On the consumption side, shifts in demand may be contributing to increasing threats to health from malnutrition, with nutrient deficiencies, over nutrition, and lack of dietary diversity. Legumes provides one example where reversing the negative consumption trends are tied to a series of investments from breeding to storage to processing, to marketing, and finally to home preparation and consumption. Shifts in the legume food systems demonstrate how transitions in food systems can provide a positive shift to healthy food choices, in urban and rural areas. 

About the Speakers:

Since 1981, Cynthia Donovan has been involved with agricultural research, training and outreach in developing countries. She is currently Deputy Director of the Feed the Future Legume Systems Research Innovation Lab, as well as an Associate Professor in International Development in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics (AFRE) and a member of the Core Faculty of the African Studies Center at Michigan State University. She is a long term member of the Food Security Group in AFRE. She has previously worked with the FAO, IFPRI, and West African Rice Development Association (now Africa Rice).  With the Innovation Lab Director, she currently manages a $13.6 million program to fund multidisciplinary competitive grants in Central America and West Africa.  She focuses on key issues in development including production economics and technology adoption, market development for smallholder participation (especially legume market development), market information systems, and impact assessment of policies and shocks on rural households. She has lived in Senegal and Mozambique, with substantial research in Rwanda, Zambia, and other sub-Saharan African countries. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay and has professional competency in Portuguese, French and Spanish languages.  

David Tschirley is Professor, International Development in the Department of Food, Agricultural, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University, and Co-Director of the department's Food Security Group. He has over 20 years of experience in applied food security research, mentoring of developing country researchers, and active policy outreach.  His work emphasizes three main areas: 1) agrifood system transformation in Africa focusing on diet change and its implications over a range of policy and programmatic issues, including employment, midstream and upstream change, and nutrition; 2) the intersection of food aid, staple food markets, and emergency response, including extensive work on monetization, local and regional food aid procurement, and the role of food trade and government policy in emergency response, and 3) institutional approaches to linking smallholder farmers to cash crop markets such as cotton and fresh produce.  He is the author of over 20 journal articles, several book chapters, one edited book volume, and dozens of working papers and policy briefs.  Dr.  Tschirley has consulted for and otherwise served the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N., InterAmerican Development Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development, The MasterCard Foundation, USAID, World Bank, and World Food Program.  Fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, Dr. Tschirley has had long-term assignments in Ecuador (1987-1990) and Mozambique (1995-98) and works most actively now in East and Southern Africa.