International Conference of Agricultural Economists ICAE 2015

IARD participates at the International Conference of Agricultural Economis ICAE 2015 & EXPO MILANO 2015



From August 9th to 14th, the 29th International Conference of Agricultural Economists took place in Milan, in the north of Italy, where the worldwide EXPO 2015 is running as well. Under the theme "Agriculture in an Interconnected World", distinguished researchers from over 80 countries and 200 institutions presented their researches and reviews in agriculture and its links with a broad list of topics.

The conference included 420 Oral Contributed Paper presentations, 200 Visual Contributed Paper presentations, 98 Organized Symposia, 15 Invited Panels, and 7 Plenary sessions. Food security, climate change, policies, adoption of technology and value chains, among other themes, were the base of discussing and debating under different scenarios.


Within the schedule, there was space to do different tours all related to the Italian agribusiness sector. In this case, the IARD students visited the EXPO-Milano 2015 that this year has as a central thematic "Feeding the planet, energy for life", where most of the countries in the world have a place to show their highlights in agricultural production as well as other interesting topics all related to this topic.


The participation of the IARD students in this event was possible thanks to German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) sponsorship.


Professors from the University of Göttingen who are part of our MSc program also participated at the ICAE conference in Milan. In the picture below Prof. Stephan von Cramon-Taubadel (Speaker of the IARD Program and Secretary-Treasurer of the IAAE), Prof. Bernhard Brümmer, Dr. Sebastian Lakner with our IARD students, IARD-Alumni MSc Pamela Velasco and the coordinator of the program Dr. Thelma Brenes.





Prof. Suharno from the Institut Pertanian Bogor also attended the conference and met our IARD students 2014-2015. Our Alumni 2014 MSc Pamela Velasco presented a paper in the conference named "Distance to market and farm-gate prices of staple beans in rural Nicaragua" about the benefits associated with improvement of rural road infrastructure by scrutinizing farm-gate prices of beans in rural Nicaragua.



Foto: IARD students Jose Acosta, Jennifer Rodriguez, Prof. Suharno, Dr. Thelma Brenes and Ana M. Perez



Foto: Our Alumni, MSc Pamela Velasco during the presentation of her poster.

Our IARD students 2014-2014 have the opportunity to participate in the event and give us some comments about their experience:

Jenny Paola Arévalo:

"I can say that the whole experience was beyond any of my expectations. Firstly, being able to attend several presentations based on actual investigations, all related to what the master and its academic program have taught to different generations, have motivated even more to continue on the search of answers and working more for the agriculture and rural development, especially for my country and Latin America.

Some of the approached studies and how they were developed have provided me some helpful insights, particularly with my thesis project. Moreover, what it fulfilled me the most was to see how much effort is being put to tackle down common problematics such as climate change, food insecurity, poverty and so on. Finally, the visit expo Milano 2015 was the perfect complement to the conference in the sense that in this opportunity is related to the triennial meeting. The different thematises such as clusters in staple food, spices, exhibitors countries and special pavilions had something interesting, informative and innovative to show to the attendance, in short words all put together to satisfy the public curiosity."

Jose Miguel Acosta Barbosa:



"My experience was positive and constructive from a professional and personal point of view. I had the chance to share with the top-world researches in agricultural economics, and I can understand the new tendencies and to where we must turn our efforts in terms of contribute to the world development through our careers.

Also I extend my professional network because it was an international meeting having members from all the global institutions and universities that works on the are of my studies.

Maybe from a technical point of view, what contributes more to me was having access to a high number of methodologies that can be implemented in research. Also having that experience encourage me for continuing with a higher degree of academical formation."

Ana M. Perez Arredondo:

"From a personal perspective, it was very enhancing to attend this platform for exchange ideas and to have new insights. The conference panels were useful for me in the sense that I had the opportunity to compare in one single panel, for instance, the technical efficiency of firms and farms in different countries of South America; models developed in order to forecast agricultural prices; the impact of ITs in agriculture and food security and how to cope with the challenges of technology transfer and adoption ; perspectives on food security among Asia, Africa and Latin America; consumer preferences and trends in packaging and traceability; the role of agricultural supply chains in poverty alleviation, and so on.

The tour to Expo Milan allowed me to have the other sight of an ?Interconnected World? in the sense that every country showed the cultural and social implications of food. The thematic pavilions also showed the relevance of some grows for consumption and the big variety of ingredients and its uses worldwide.

The presentations along with the Expo were, over all, an inspirational spot were I had the opportunity to hear directly the opinions of the leading experts in agricultural economics, and also to confirm once more the relevance of my field of study."

Jennifer Rodriguez Franco



"As a master student I found a great opportunity to view the work of various international researchers from different Institutions, Government organizations and Universities. I learnt about important topics and different research methodologies. For instance, Food security in the global context, the significance of the measurement tools and the importance to participate in the development of better indicators that can measure the food security in all aspects of its concept´s definition.

Attending to the EXPO MILANO was a great complement to the conference, thinking about how we can feed the world from the point of view of the government, institutions and citizens. The importance of responsible consumption, sustainability and resilience were exposed in contrast in the Slow Food and Future Food District pavilion. In overall the participation contribute to improve my master thesis with some ideas and help me to have a perspective of my future career. "