I am a research associate and deputy head at the Agricultural policy department of the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), Germany. 

I joined IAMO in August 2012, and received tenured position in 2018. Before joining IAMO, I obtained my PhD in agriculture at the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany. 

I have been working in interdisciplinary and international teams of highly motivated and skilled researchers from Europe and Central Asia. The wide range of activities, I have been dealing with, have provided me with a good understanding of complex problems in agricultural sustainability and rural development in the post-socialist countries.

Over the past 24 years my research was on agricultural policies and farm restructuring in Central Asia. I am particularly interested in how agricultural policies, (in)formal institutions, and behavioral factors shape farmers’ decisions on land-water use, and the adoption, adaptation, and resilience outcomes, with a particular focus on irrigated areas of Central Asia. Since 2025 I lead a research group on Rural Community Resilience (CARe) and serve as a spokesperson for IAMO’s Central Asia International Research Group.