Global food security – potentials and challenges

Rising food needs and increasing economic growth in emerging economies as well as the beginning of a new era of trade agreements determine international agricultural markets and thus global food supply since the beginning of the new millennium.

The IAMO Forum 2014 with the title “The Rise of the ‘Emerging Economies’: Towards Functioning Agricultural Markets and Trade Relations?” will take place 25 to 27 June 2014 in Halle (Saale), focusing on food markets functioning in major emerging and transition economies.

International scientists will present their current research findings on such topics as development potentials of emerging economies, international trade agreements, foods security as well as financial speculation with agricultural commodities and food price volatility in three plenaries, thirteen parallel and four organized sessions.

The conference will open on June 25 June 2014 with the plenary session “Emerging Economies – Are they the Future Global Food Basket?” with presentations given by William Liefert (USDA Economic Research Service, USA), William J. Martin (World Bank, USA), Holly Wang (Purdue University, USA) and Barry K. Goodwin (North Carolina State University, USA).

Harald von Witzke (Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany), Christopher Gilbert (University of Trento, Italy), Scott H. Irwin (University of Illinois, USA) and Hermann Steep (Cargill, Germany) will give keynote presentations in the plenary session “Volatility and Speculation on Agricultural Markets” on the second conference day (26 June). Challenges and opportunities of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership for the USA, EU and neighboring countries will be discussed by Alan Matthews (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland), Gopinath Munisamy (USDA Economic Research Service, USA), Carmel Cahill (OECD, France) and Martina Brockmeier (Hohenheim University, Germany) in the plenary session on 27 June 2014.

The IAMO Forum 2014 will be supplemented by organized sessions with ensuing panel discussions. For example, agro-industry representatives of the agribusiness from Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan will report about specific challenges to the development of the grain sector in their countries on 25 June 2014. A session hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) will provide a platform for discussing the future of trade agreements in the CIS countries.

Also, Ingo Pies, professor and economic ethicist at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, will ask various experts on their perspectives on future global food security (26 June). The last conference day (27 June) will feature, inter alia, the IAMO projects “Global Food Crisis – Impacts on Wheat Markets and Trade in the Caucasus and Central Asia and the Role of Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine” (funded by VolkswagenStiftung) and “Global Food Security and the Grain Markets of Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan” (funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture). Guest speakers Michael Carter (UC Davis, USA) and Kym Anderson (University of Adelaide, Australia) as well as IAMO researchers Gulmira Gafarova and Dmytro Serebrennikov will provide insights into their research projects.

For further information and the complete program of the IAMO Forum 2014, please visit our conference webpage at: www.iamo.de/forum/2014/program

The IAMO Forum 2014 is organized by Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO) in cooperation with Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) and International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium (IATRC). Funding supporters include German Research Foundation (DFG), Ministry of Sciences and Economic Affairs of Saxony-Anhalt, Rentenbank, KWS SAAT AG, H. Wilhelm Schaumann Foundation and the City of Halle (Saale).

Media representative are kindly invited to attend the IAMO Forum 2014. We will be happy to arrange interviews with participating experts during the conference; please contact: presse@iamo.de

About IAMO

The Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO) analyses economic, social and political processes of change in the agricultural and food sector, and in rural areas. The geographic focus covers the enlarging EU, transition regions of Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe, as well as Central and Eastern Asia. IAMO is making a contribution towards enhancing understanding of institutional, structural and technological changes. Moreover, IAMO is studying the resulting impacts on the agricultural and food sector as well as the living conditions of rural populations. The outcomes of our work are used to derive and analyze strategies and options for enterprises, agricultural markets and politics. Since its foundation in 1994, IAMO has been part of the Leibniz Association, a German community of independent research institutes.

Please note that since the beginning of this year the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe is renamed Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies. The acronym IAMO is still valid.

Media contact

Daniela Schimming
Public Relations
Tel.: +49 345 2928-330
Fax: +49 345 2928-499
presse@iamo.de
www.iamo.de