Research undertaken under the "Food Security in Africa Cooperative Agreement" between the U.S. Agency for International Development (Bureau of Science and Technology and Africa Bureau) and the Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University. The primary objective was to increase food security in developing countries as part of broad-based market orientated, sustainable economic growth. Sub-Goal: To ensure adoption by public and private sector decision makers (including A.LD. and other donor agencies) of effective policies, programs and management processes that promote food security, based on project generated research and analyses. Purpose: To strengthen the capacity of participating countries and USAIDs to analyze food security issues and to formulate policies, institutional reforms, investment plans and management processes that promote food security.

Prior to his doctoral studies, Professor Eric Crawford worked on rural and agricultural development programs in Kenya for five years, initially as a Peace Corps volunteer. He joined the department at Michigan State in 1979 as an assistant professor focusing on international agricultural development. He is appointed in the tenure system. He has taught graduate courses in farm management and benefit-cost analysis. He has been a core faculty member of the department’s USAID-funded rural development and food security projects in Africa since 1980. He worked in Senegal in 1983-86 under a department project with the Institute of Agricultural Research, focusing on farming systems research, fertilizer distribution, and food security policy.