International Conference of Agricultural Economists 2015

9 - 14 August 2015. Milan, Italy. The 29th International Conference of Agricultural Economists 2015 (ICAE) with the theme “Agriculture in an Interconnected World” was intended to capture the widespread adoption of new communication technologies. 

The theme embraced a wide range of interconnections that are contributing to unprecedented changes in global agriculture, such as: 

• trade policy debates, both when prices are high and when they are low;
• the collective action problems associated with price volatility;
• international investment in agricultural land;
• links between scientific progress and productivity growth in agriculture;
• climate change and agriculture;
• competition between agriculture and other users of increasingly scarce water.
• links between agricultural and energy markets through biofuels and inputs of fuel and fertilizer;
• links between agriculture and other uses of land;
• links between agriculture and other sectors as developing countries urbanize and labor moves out of agriculture;
• the supermarket revolution in developing countries

Related:

7 - 8 August 2015. A 2-day pre-ICAE event was organised by the European Commission with the European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE) and the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium (IATRC) at the margins of the EXPO Milan 2015. It gathered more than 30 high level speakers from academia, major international organisations and governments to provide a closer look at the various dimensions of food security. Recent food security scenario analysis set the scene and helped identify the main drivers that will impact food security in coming decades, in particular the role of productivity, technological breakthroughs, policies and other factors also beyond market fundamentals.

• >> Programme [542 KB]
• >> Abstracts and speakers' CVs [912 KB]
• >> List of participants [2 MB]

Extracts of the program:

• "The future of food and nutrition security in developing countries" [2 MB] (Hans van Meijl, Research director food nexus and bioeconomy and Thom Achterbosch, Senior researcher, LEI-WUR)
• "Exploring sustainable futures through foresight" [2 MB] (Erik Mathijs, Professor, KU Leuven)
• "Extension: knowledge that brings knowledge – agricultural R&D in Ethiopia" [4 MB] (Nega Wubeneh, Senior Director, Systems Programs, Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency)
• "Focus on Africa" [581 KB] (Sam Asuming-Brempong, Associate Professor, University of Ghana, FAC-CAADP Coordinator for the Future Agricultures Consortium)
• "Facilitating access to and uptake of appropriate technologies by smallholder farmers in Africa" [3 MB] (Denis Kyetere, Executive Director AATF)
• "Summary conclusions" [95 KB] (Tassos Haniotis, Director Economic Analysis, Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development, European Commission)

Related:

13 August 2015. The Impact of Research on EU Agriculture is a 38 months research project implemented between November 2013 and December 2016. IMPRESA organised a symposium on Measuring the value of policy oriented research to discuss themes and issues in agricultural research impact evaluation with contributions from the IMPRESA consortium and its scientific advisory committee members. 

Extract: 

• Draft of paper - IFPRI Policy Research Summary Summary of Workshop on Best Practice Methods For Assessing The Impact Of Policy Oriented Research, IFPRI headquarters in Washington DC, November 11–12, 2014: SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE CGIAR
• Evaluating the Scientific Quality of Agricultural Research: The Approach of the CGIAR’s Independent Evaluation Arrangement, Chris Gerrard, Independent Evaluation Arrangement of the CGIAR