International Section: Announcement of Track Sessions

The AAEA International Section, the largest of the Association’s sections, will sponsor 10 distinct sessions at the 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting in San Francisco. We are grateful to our co-sponsor Sections and Committees for making it possible to put together the largest track session offering in our Section’s history, despite the triennial international conference two weeks later in Italy. Come join us and hear the exciting research being presented by a wide range of scholars.

The track sessions include sessions on (organizers and their affiliations in parentheses):

1) “Making agricultural research matter to women farmers” (Corrine Valdivia, Missouri), co-sponsored with the Committee on Women in Agricultural Economics (CWAE).

2) “Food Security in an Imperfect World: Method, Causes and Remedies” (Ashok Mishra, LSU), co-sponsored with the Applied Risk Analysis section.

3) “Reexamining Agricultural Commercialization in the Developing World: The Cash versus Food Production Tradeoff” (Ben Wood, 3ie), co-sponsored with the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE).

4) “Guiding Investments in Sustainable Agricultural Intensification in Sub-Saharan Africa” (Melinda Smale, Michigan State), co-sponsored with the Committee on the Opportunity and Status of Blacks in Agricultural Economics (COSBAE).

5) “Economics of Food Losses and Waste: What are the right questions?” (Willi Meyers, Missouri), co-sponsored with the Agribusiness Economics and Management section.

6) “Emerging Development Issues in Rural China: Land titling, agricultural subsidy, distance education and non-farm employment” (Songqing Jin, Michigan State), co-sponsored with the China section.

7) “Agriculture in Africa: Telling Facts from Myths” (Luc Christiaensen, World Bank), co-sponsored with the China section.

8) “The Role of the Developing and Emerging Countries in Shaping the Future of the Global Trade System” (Tim Josling, Stanford), co-sponsored with the Senior section.

9) “Soil Tests & Smallholder Farmers: How potent a productive input is soil fertility information?” (Travis Lybbert, UC-Davis).

10) “Ebola: Predicting it, Addressing it, and Food Security Impacts” (George Norton, Virginia Tech).

The Section is also sponsoring a pre-conference, Saturday, July 25, on “Rapid AgriFood System Transformation, Globalization, and International Development”, organized by Tom Reardon (Michigan State), Bart Minten (IFPRI), David Zilberman (UC-Berkeley) and Jo Swinnen (KU Leuven). The preconference will take stock of the emerging literature on food system transformation in developing countries, partly in response to globalization and urbanization over the past 20 years.

Please come join us, contribute to what promise to be stimulating discussions, hear cutting-edge research presentations, renew old acquaintances and make new friends.

1) Gopi Munisamy and Chris Barrett, International Section Chair and Chair-Elect