Agro-industries for Development

The development of competitive agro-industries is crucial for creating employment and income opportunities as well as enhancing the quality of and demand for farm products. Agro-industries can have a real effect on international development by increasing economic growth and reducing poverty in both rural and urban areas of developing countries. However, in order to avoid adverse effects to vulnerable countries and people, sound policies and strategies for fostering agro-industries are needed. "Agro-industries for Development" highlights the current status and future course for agro-industries and brings attention to the contributions this sector can make to international development. The book includes contributions from agro-industry specialists, academic experts and UN technical agencies, chapters address the strategies and actions required for improving agro-industrial competitiveness in ways that can create income, generate employment and fight poverty in the developing world. This book is a co-publication with FAO and UNIDO. This book features such topics as agricultural and international development policy makers, agro-industry specialists, agribusiness managers and researchers in agricultural economics and related topics.

Carlos A. da Silva works since 2004 at the Rural Infrastructure and Agro-industries Division of FAO, in Rome, where he holds the post of Senior Agribusiness Economist. He has been involved in the formulation and implementation of agribusiness development projects in several countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. With an extensive publications record, he has coordinated or participated as a team member in FAO studies and events on themes that include contract farming, enabling environments for agribusiness and agro-industrial development, agro-industrial supply chain management, agricultural marketing and agrifood chain performance assessment methodologies. Prior to joining FAO, Dr. Da Silva worked for some 20 years as an agribusiness consultant, researcher and full professor of Agro-Industrial Economics and Projects at the Federal University of Viçosa, Brazil. An economist by training, he holds a Ph.D. and a M.Sc. degree in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University.

Doyle Baker is Chief of FAO's Rural Infrastructure and Agro-Industries Division (AGS). AGS is responsible for FAO work relating to agribusiness, marketing, finance, farm management, post-harvest management, agro-processing and food technologies. Some of the main thematic areas of work of the Division include agribusiness enabling environments, business linkages and value chains, value chain finance, inclusive business models, product and process innovation, product quality and safety, contract farming, public private partnerships, market-oriented agricultural infrastructure, marketing and farm management extension, and business and financial services. Dr. Baker provides oversight and support for most of these issues, including related field projects in more than 25 countries. He also represents FAO in the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development and the Sustainable Food Laboratory. Prior to joining FAO in 1997, he spent 15 years in Africa conducting on-farm research and managing research programs including at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture. He has a PhD in agricultural economics from Michigan State University.

Andrew Shepherd has worked in FAO's Agricultural Marketing section since 1985 and is now the Senior Officer in charge of Market Linkage and Value Chain work at the Rural Infrastructure and Agro-Industries Division. Since 1985 he has published extensively, both training materials targeted at extension officers as well as technical and policy papers. He has also technically edited many other FAO publications. Topics on which he has worked have included market information, contract farming, marketing finance, market infrastructure, value chain associations and ways of linking farmers to markets. He has travelled to over 50 countries for FAO to support technical assistance projects.

Chakib Jenane is the Chief of the Agro-industry Technology Unit and Deputy-Director of the Agro-business Development Branch of UNIDO. He leads a team of engineers and economists responsible for agro-industrial investments projects in developing countries, in particular in Africa.

Sergio Miranda-da-Cruz was educated in engineering and economics at Campinas University (UNICAMP) and the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (both in Brazil) and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, Boston, USA). His area of interest and professional activities is the theoretical and experimental modelling of the linkages between science and technology (S&T) and sustainable development. His past experience involves work as an engineer in different capacities in development and investment banking and also in academia as a Professor at the School of Food Engineering in Brazil. He has been working with UNIDO, at Headquarters in Vienna, Austria, since 1986, including a six-year period as the Representative of UNIDO in Beijing, covering North-east Asia (China, Mongolia, North and South Koreas) and liaising with UNIDO's Investment and Technology Promotion Office in Japan. Currently he is the Director of the Bureau of Programme Design and Knowledge Management of the Organization.