Division for Agricultural and Food Economics

The Division of Agricultural and Food Economics carries out research on the simultaneous realisation of a sustainable management of natural resources and an improvement of the income situation of land use actors. We investigate how land users (farmers, foresters) can be stimulated to adopt improved technologies that together with better market systems can lead to a more sustainable management of natural resources (soil, water, space, plants, animals) with at the same time improved incomes for these actors
    
 Specific  Research themes include:

     Policy and technology impact assessment
Prof. dr. ir. Eric Tollens

•      The socio-economic impact of agricultural biotechnology in European agriculture
•      Evaluating policies on agricultural technologies
•      Methodological issues on ex ante impact assessment
•      Economic analysis of invasive species in agriculture

     Food value chains
Prof. dr. ir. Miet Maertens

•      The globalization of food supply chains
•      Socio-economic performance of global food value chains
•      Environmental performance of global food value chains
•      Supply chain upgrading
•      Private and public food standards in international trade and development

     Organization, transition and environment
Prof. dr. ir. Erik Mathijs

•     Ecological citizenship and politicization: The case of the Transition Towns movement in Flanders
•     Multi-actor collaboration, renewable energy and climate change
•     Transition management and sustainability
•     Action research

     Rural livelihoods in South-America and Africa
Prof. dr. ir.  Miet Maertens, Prof. dr. ir. Erik Mathijs and Prof. dr. ir. Eric Tollens

•     Adoption and economics of deficit irrigation of quinoa in the Bolivian Altiplano
•      Integrated soil fertility management, market access and food security in Central Africa
•      Optimal management of farm level resources in the Lake Victoria Basin (Uganda)
•      Restoration and sustainable management of frankincense forests in Ethiopia
•      Sustainable livelihoods in the Geba Catchment, Tigray, North Ethiopia (Vlir-IUC)
•      Sustainable management of agro-ecosystems in Peru (Vlir-IUC)

     Land use change
Prof. dr. ir. Miet Maertens

• Integrated analysis of land use and land use changes
• Analysis of spatial decision making mechanisms at the farm household level
• Land use at the agriculture-forest frontier and deforestation
  

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