Deadline for submission of abstracts: 30 January 2007

Second Announcement and Call for Papers

Theme: Agricultural Growth, Poverty Reduction and Millennium Development Goals in Africa

The AAAE invites interested Agricultural Economists and social scientists to submit abstracts and papers for the Conference planned for August 20-22 2007 in Accra, Ghana.

The Second conference of the AAAE follows a successful inaugural symposium held in Nairobi, Kenya during December 2004 at the launching of the association. The conference will provide opportunity for agricultural economists and other social scientists in the public, private and non-governmental organizations and institutions to share and assess progress made in improving productivity in African agriculture. It will also promote better networking among the professionals. The objectives of the association include:

To improve liaison between agricultural economists with an interest in African issues at the regional and international levels;
To promote training, research, policy dialogue and interest in Agricultural Economics on the continent of Africa.
To contribute to broad based rural development, poverty reduction, food security and sustainable use of natural resources in the continent of Africa.

Conference Sub-Themes

The organizers are soliciting papers on the following sub themes

1. Improved Markets for African Farmers for Poverty Reduction

Linking farmers to markets
Achieving competitiveness in agricultural production and trade
Agricultural value chains and role of Supermarkets
Agribusiness
Trade (WTO and Regional Trade blocs) issues
Globalization
Infrastructure

2. Advancing Technical Change in African Agriculture: Public Policy Issues and Strategic Choices

Biotechnology
Information and communication technology
Bio-chemical and mechanical technologies

3. The Role of Agriculture in Poverty Reduction: Recent Experiences from Africa

Success stories and emerging challenges
The role of education in reducing rural poverty

4. Expanding the Frontiers of Agricultural Economics to Meet the Challenges of Agricultural Development in achieving the Millennium Development Goals

New Institutional economics
Quantitative and qualitative methods,
New tools to run agriculture as a business
Agricultural finance

5. Meeting Africa’s Food and Nutrition challenges

Agriculture growth, rural poverty and hunger
Health (HIV/AIDS, malaria), food insecurity and rural poverty
Gender inequality, food insecurity and rural poverty

6. Agriculture, Environment and Sustainable Development

Pro-poor growth strategies in the African semi-arid tropics
Effects of drought and mitigation
Climate change and agriculture

Conference Fee

The conference fee will cover a registration package, conference booklet and proceedings, twice daily tea/coffee breaks, lunches, a mid-conference excursion, an opening social event and the closing dinner. The conference fee for early registration by 25 February 2007 is US $120 for professionals and $105 for students. Late registration fee will be US $240 for professionals and $210 for students. Payments will be made at the conference venue during registration. Advance payments, however, can be made directly to the AAAE Secretariat in Nairobi.

Membership Registration

Membership is open to all those interested including professionals from many areas of government (including policy makers), academics, non-governmental organizations and industry. The membership fees are US $30 for professionals and $15 for students over a two-year period. Membership fees should be paid along with the conference registration fee.

Timeframe and Deadlines

30 October 2006 - First announcement. Online registration will be activated from 15 November 2006

10 January 2007 – Second announcement and registration for conference

30 January 2007 – Deadline for submission of abstracts

20 March 2007 – Confirmation of accepted abstracts

30 March 2007 – Deadline for early registration for the conference

20 May 2007 – Final registration for organized workshops/ symposia

20 June 2007 - Deadline for submission of full papers to the organizing committee

20-22 August 2007 - The Second Conference of the African Association of Agricultural Economists

Oral presentations

We encourage presenters to take full advantage of visual aids through the use of computer monitor projection. All presentations will be made using PowerPoint

Poster presentations

Presenters will be provided an area of approximately 1.2 m (height) by 1.0 m (width) to display their posters. Those who require the use of a table, or wish to give demonstrations or larger commercial exhibits must contact the secretariat by 15 June 2007.

Guidelines for Contributed Papers

Abstracts. Abstracts of not more than 250 words must be submitted as a MS Word document (or other compatible format) on or before 30 January 2007 either as a file on a 3.5” computer diskette or as a email attachment to: Musa Omare, FORMAT, P.O. Box 79 Village Market 00621 Nairobi, Kenya; Email to: aaaeghana@yahoo.com. No hard copy submissions will be accepted.

Conference papers. The conference will publish selected papers as a special issue of the African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics (AfJARE). Manuscripts should be submitted by 20 June, 2007. Selection of contributed papers for presentation will be competitive and will be managed by a panel of distinguished reviewers in our profession. Submit your papers as soon as possible by email to: aaaeghana@yahoo.com or post 3.5” computer diskette to: Musa Omare, c/o FORMAT, P.O. Box 79 Village Market 00621 Nairobi, Kenya.

The papers may be in either French or English languages. The papers should consist of the following sections:

Title (with author names and addresses), Abstract (not more than 250 words), Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion, Conclusions (optional), Acknowledgements, References.

Authors should double space all the materials, including footnotes, tables, quotations and bibliographies on A4 inch standard weight white paper with margins on all sides of at least 1 inch. The main text should not be in italics. The manuscripts should not Exceed 8 (eight) pages of font size 12 Times New Roman, double spaced. This includes Tables, Appendices, Graphs and the Bibliography.

Footnotes. Footnotes should not be used within the text.

References and Citations. All references, alphabetically by authors should be put in a list at the end of the paper entitled “References”. Only cited work should be included in the reference list. Journal article information in the reference list should include year of publication. All citations should appear in the text should contain the author’s name and year of publication. The following reference style is acceptable:

Gilbert, J. and T. Wahl. 2001. “Applied General Equilibrium Assessments of Trade Liberalization in China”. World Economy 25 (5): 697-731.

Eicher, C.K. and B. Kupfuma. 1997. Zimbabwe’s emerging maize revolution. In D. Byerlee and C.K. Eicher (eds.), Africa’s Emerging Maize Revolution. Boulder, Colorado. Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Checkland, P.B., 1981. Systems Thinking, Systems Practice. John Wiley, Chichester

Clayton, E., 1968. Economic Planning in Peasant Agriculture. Department of Economics Monographs, University of London, Wye College, UK

Tables. Number all tables consecutively with Arabic numerals. All tables should have titles in lower case except the first letter of the first word and proper nouns. Footnotes to tables should be lowercase, superscript italic letters and should appear immediately below the table.

Figures. All illustrations should be considered as figures and numbered consecutively throughout the text with Arabic numerals. Units of measurements should be clearly specified.

Logistics

These will be provided in the second announcement. We look forward to seeing you at The Second Conference of the African Association of Agricultural Economists in Accra.

The conference updates will be available at the http://www.aaae-africa.org/

ONLINE REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN