The GFAR Triennial Conference deliberated, through working groups, on 9 important topics related to agricultural research for development. These topics were:

• Balancing income generation and household and community food security
• Re-orienting agricultural education and support systems
• Blending knowledge systems for an inclusive approach to innovation
• From NARIs to NARS: Towards multi-disciplinary and cross-sectorial approaches
• Demand-led partnerships and mechanisms to generate and promote access to knowledge and technology
• Mobilizing financial resources and improving their allocation
• Future energy needs for agriculture with a special emphasis on bio-fuels: Implications for Farming Communities
• Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Markets
• Harnessing biodiversity for sustainable livelihoods

For each working group, there was a lead discussant who provided a well researched background to the topic, highlighted the issues for ARD and provided direction to the group discussions. The working groups’ deliberations, which were very rich in content, resulted in recommendations for further action by all ARD and GFAR on the topic. The GFAR Triennial Conference Proceedings will reflect in greater detail the discussions of the Working Groups.

In general, the working groups recommended that GFAR takes up advocacy about the importance of these research topics for action by ARD stakeholders, enables new partnerships to pursue research and innovation around these topics and contributes to mobilizing sharing and dissemination of information and knowledge on these topics.