As our CEO left the World Food Programme at the end of 2021 and reflected on the amazing work done by his former team at the intersection of crisis and transformation in Ethiopia’s agrifood industry, it struck him that 10 viewpoints had come to loom large in his day-to-day activities. Here they are:

1. The only thing you can be sure to find in the agrifood industry is diversity. Fight to understand that diversity, aiming to influence the few things that really matter. In Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa, most of what really matters is in the transport system.
2. Examine the good and bad in agrifood industries from the standpoint of the people and firms living through the good and bad. Start with the cropping calendar and never take your eye off it. Go to the field a lot. There is no substitute for raw facts.
3. Farmers and traders are rational, including the poorest ones. But remember they are also just human. Economic drive may not be all that matters, but it is always present. For humanitarian and development policy and programming, that is enough.
4. Markets work just about everywhere but are fraught with problems. Usually, to find the markets that really count, you must wake up very early and follow the sacks of food. If you don’t observe trade, then you are on to something important. Search wider, dig deeper.
5. Inadequacies and inefficiencies in agrifood marketing (i.e., transport, storage, processing, finance & insurance) are major drivers of low agricultural productivity. It’s stunning, but many development agencies and practitioners still don’t get this.
6. Take a “food system” approach, not a “food commodity” one. When conditions change, look for who can substitute (and stay in place) and who must adjust (and move). Remember the “5 Fs” in food systems – food, feed, fuel, fats and oils, high fructose sugar.
7. Agrifood trade is hard, risky, and typically low-margin. The “evil middleman” is a gross distortion of what really happens in agrifood markets, not least because he is often a she.
8. Be skeptical of politicians but climb in bed with them all the same. Don’t be doctrinaire if you want to have policy impact, but also don’t be naïve. Politicians are just that — politicians. You are useful to them only if you are useful to them.
9. Keep the big picture in view. Remember that policy reforms and institutional innovations generate winners and losers by affirming, destroying, or leaving unchanged the value of installed capacity and capital.
10. Be warm, kind, principled. The workflow can be brutal, so be sure to embrace, encourage, and embolden one another, fighting hard against old-boy networks, especially the racist ones.

Reactions and comments would be most welcome and appreciated!