The International Agricultural Trade and Food Security group aims to contribute to the ananalysis of different pathways and associated policies to support the sustainable transformation of agrifood-ecosystems. A particular focus is on trade-offs and synergies between sustainability objectives: economic and social, in particular food security, and environmental targets.We are particularly interested in…

… assessing the role of international trade and trade policies (including tariff and non-tariff measures such as regulation, standards and mirror clasues).

… investigating the resilience of agrifood-ecosystems to economic and physical shocks.

… exploring different sustainable solution pathways on the demand side (e.g., food waste reduction, changes in dietary behaviour) and on the supply side (e.g., expansion of irrigation, scarcity of natural resources such as phosphorus).

… analysing the effects of different policy options/ mix of policies such as different trade, climate and agricultural and food policies and how these policies need to be designed to ensure that they are target-oriented, sustainable and efficient.

For this purpose, we develop and apply global and single-country economic models and their underlying databases. These economic models are well suited to analysing the impact of different behavioural changes and policy instruments, taking into account potential repercussion and spill-over effects through markets to consider potential effects on by-standers. In addition, we use participatory approaches and co-creative methods to develop scenarios and simulation models, incorporating expert knowledge from different stakeholders in the respective area of interest. We also apply qualitative methods such as survey instruments and interviews.

Our research is policy-oriented, and we aim to understand how we can increase the uptake of evidence in policy making. The knowledge generated and the collaboration with different institutions that are active in the policy sphere ensure that we conduct and deliver research that is relevant to the transformation of agrifoode ecosystems at global, national and local levels.