From 29th to 30th January 2015 King's College London (KCL), the OCP Policy Center, the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) and Wageningen University will organize an international conference on Tropical Agriculture: the Future of Food and Water Security in the MENA region, which will take place in Barcelona. The program will consist of twelve papers and will be organized by Mark Mulligan (KCL), Martin Keulertz (Purdue University), Karim El Aynaoui (OCP Policy Center), Eckart Woertz (CIDOB) and Jeroen Warner (Wageningen University).
Papers from the conference will be considered for a special section in Food Security, subject to the Journal's normal refereeing process.
OVERVIEW: The MENA region is among the most water-stressed regions in the world exposed to severe challenges with respect to food and water security. Apart from policy options to sustainably intensify regional agricultural production, trade will play a crucial role for most MENA economies to achieve food security. We invite abstracts that investigate ways to increase food and water security in the MENA region through trade options in tropical agriculture. Given the environmental value and sensitivity of tropical ecosystems opportunities for sustainable intensification in countries like Brazil, Sub-Sahara Africa and South East Asia are of particular interest. The desired outcome of the conference is to provide an interdisciplinary perspective on how to open up opportunities for a new geopolitical-environmental cooperation between regions faced by either physical or economic water stress.
TOPICS: Topics of interest include: Trade maps and complementarities in food and input provision; environmental and biophysical risks and opportunities for greater MENA collaboration with tropical economies; the impact of climate variability and change on MENA food security and transboundary food-dependence; possible transformation trajectories of farming systems in tropical zones that can increase domestic and international food security while protecting social and environmental needs in both regions to avoid 'land grabbing'; institutional changes on both the international relations and domestic level to facilitate cooperation potentials; and the role of agricultural technology and skills transfer.
PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURE: The organizers invite detailed proposals and preferably draft research papers. Proposals should be submitted electronically to no later than 30 September 2014. Authors of selected papers will be notified by 14 October 2014. Please note that the organizers will contact authors only if their paper is accepted. The papers should have a length of 6,000-7,500 words and represent original research not presented or published elsewhere. Authors will receive an honorarium of $1,000 and be expected to present their paper at the conference. For selected papers a contribution towards travel and accommodation costs can be made available.
