Workshop “Agricultural Innovations, Rural Development and Globalization Processes in Central Asia”

The workshop “Agricultural Innovations, Rural Development and Globalization Processes in Central Asia” will take place at IAMO in Halle (Saale), Germany, on 17 February 2020. The event is organized in the framework of a PostDoc research supported by EEGA.

The full day workshop aims to bring together researchers from different disciplines to better understand processes of globalization and agricultural innovations towards agricultural and rural development in Central Asian countries. In order to exploit agriculture’s potential in a sustainable way, innovations as well as reforms of the current institutional environment are required. Challenges relate to non-transparent and poorly defined land ownership and tenure relations, a high discretionary involvement of governments in input and output markets, high transaction costs, inadequate access to credit for farmers and a limited provision of public goods and services. However, innovations and integration into global markets will have implications for structural changes, rural labour markets, rural socio-economy, as well as farmers’ behaviour. The important role of these processes has attracted attention of social scientists from various related fields, including agricultural economists. This workshop aims to build a platform for researchers working on topics related to Central Asian agriculture in order to share their ideas for further agricultural and rural development.

Contributions from different academic disciplines including, but not limited to, political science, economics, and development studies, covering the following topics within a Central Asian context/from a Central Asian perspective using different methodologies and techniques are welcomed:

  • Agricultural innovation system and agricultural production
  • Social impact of agricultural technology adoption
  • Agricultural policies and innovation adoption
  • Rural employment, migration and income diversification
  • Commercialization and value chain development
  • Role of different farm types in agricultural development
  • Sustainable management of land and water resources in agriculture
  • Trade, regional integration and internationalization
  • Globalization effects on Central Asian agriculture

Interested applicants are invited to submit a structured abstract by 15 December 2019.
Please find detailed information to the call for submissions here.