Economics and policies of carbon farming

This project focuses on the economics and policies of carbon farming as well as monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) initiatives at the farm and landscape levels in Europe. This PhD project has two primary objectives. The first objective is to determine the cost-effectiveness of carbon farming practices and MRV initiatives. The second objective is to evaluate the socio-economic implications through a systemic approach. Both objectives will entail the collection and analysis of a combination of quantitative and qualitative data from focus groups and workshops with key stakeholders in various regions of Europe. The project covers three land-use classes (cropland, grassland and agroforestry) across four countries (Belgium, Czech Republic, Italy and Spain). 

This PhD project, which is part of the EU Horizon MRV4SOC project, is carried out by Lisa Vanderheyden (2023-2027). MRV4SOC is a 3-year interdisciplinary project involving 11 partners. Its aim is to design a comprehensive, robust, and cost-effective MRV methodological framework, engaging all stakeholders in the process.

Sustainability of agri-food trade: Implications for food and water security in Morocco

Like many other lower-income countries, Morocco has become an increasingly important exporter of fresh fruits and vegetables. While these changing trade patterns have created many employment opportunities, it is still unclear what the overall sustainability implications are. The aim of this project is to evaluate the effects of Morocco's agri-food trade on food and water security.  Using nationally representative, time series datasets, the analysis will focus on nutritional effects and water use.

This PhD project is carried out by Omar Frikhat (2022-2028).

Food Smart Cities: The role of urban agriculture in north central Ethiopia

The innovative concept of Food Smart Cities (FSCs) has been recently put forward to rethink and redesign urban food systems to be more sustainable, inclusive and healthy. .An important component within FSCs is urban agriculture (UA), which has been increasingly proposed as a lever to overcome the rising levels of urban poverty and malnutrition. Yet, if UA is not well embedded with the urban food systems, it might bring additional burdens for cities’ economic resilience, environmental integrity, gender inclusiveness and food and nutrition security. The overall aim of this PhD project is therefore to understand and evaluate the contribution of UA to sustainable, inclusive and healthy urban food systems. We will use interdisciplinary approach to investigate the role of urban agriculture in promoting food smart cities in north central Ethiopia. It will evaluate technical, institutional and commercial possibilities and constraints, gender inclusiveness, economic and environmental synergies and trade-offs, and contribution of UA to food and nutrition security. 

This PhD project, which received fuding from ARES, is carried out by Amare Molla (2022-2026) in collaboration with Wollo University (Ethiopia).

Promoting biodiversity conservation and economic sustainability in the cocoa sector

This project aims to better understand the implications of increased intensification of cocoa production for the conservation value of cocoa agroforestry and its economic profitability for smallholders, with a focus on cocoa cultivation in the region of Southern Bahia, Brazil. The project uses an interdisciplinary approach that combines farm-household interviews and farm-level biodiversity assessment surveys. We will investigate environmental and economic trade-offs and synergies between biodiversity conservation and cocoa productivity, as well as the effectiveness of cocoa certification standards for enhancing biodiversity conservation and smallholders’ livelihoods. We will focus on Sul da Bahia Geographic Indication (GI) that aims to promote regional economic development and shade cocoa agroforest preservation. Ultimately, the project will deliver recommendations for improving the sustainable management of agroforestry systems in cocoa-producing landscapes to promote biodiversity conservation while ensuring farmers’ profits. 

This PhD project, which received fuding from FRIA, is carried out by Steffi Dekegel (2021-2025) in collaboration with the State University of Santa Cruz (Brazil) and the Antwerp Zoo Centre for Research and Conservation (CRC).

The role of certification and coordination in local food value chains

This project focuses on local food systems (LFS), both in emerging and high-income economies. It includes a literature review on claims surrounding LFS (which was published in Agricultural Systems), and three case studies. The case studies look at certification and coordination in fresh vegetable value chains in Belgium, Vietnam and Peru, with a focus on farmers’ perspective and reduction of pesticides. More specifically, the project explores whether participatory guarantee systems (PGS), i.e. an internal-control certification mechanism guaranteeing safe and sustainable production practices, may be able to improve farmers’ access to the local market under beneficial conditions.  You can find the results for Vietnam here, for Belgium here and for Peru here.

This PhD project is carried out by Laura Enthoven (2019-2023) and received funding from FSR Seed-Fund and FRIA.

Labor market development and women empowerment: An engine for rural development in Sub-Saharan Africa?

This project aims to understand and evaluate women’s participation in off-farm employment in rural areas in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Using a wide variety of primary and secondary panel data from multiple SSA countries, we analyze the factors influencing women’s labor market decisions, the decompositon of the gender pay gap, and the impact of female employment on food security and nutrition, child education and family planning.

I received a post-doctoral fellowship from FWO to lead this project (2016-2019), in cooperation with researchers from the World Bank, Wageningen University, IFPRI and University of Leuven. 

Global food value chains and rural employment in Senegal: Welfare and gender implications

This project examines the links between global food value chains, employment creation and rural development. It focuses on the Saint-Louis region in Senegal, a rural area where investments from horticultural export companies have created many employment opportunities since 2000s, especially for women. Using primary collected household- and individual-level data, various welfare and gender effects are analysed. First, we demonstrate that employment is particularly inclusive towards the poorest and increases their income with 30 to 53%. Second, we show that women's employment reduces the number of children per woman by 25%, and that this fertility reducing effect is as large for poor as for non-poor women and larger for illiterate than for literate women. Third, we find that women's employment improves subjective wellbeing for the poorest but not necessarily for women whose household income has moved well beyond the poverty threshold. Fourth, we show that women have a high willingness to accept a labour contract in the horticultural export sector and that differences in preferences for contract attributes can be explained by women’s empowerment status. 

This PhD project was carried out by me (2012-2016) under supervision of prof. Miet Maertens, and was funded by FWO. It received the Carl K. Eicher award for Best PhD on Africa from the International Association of Agricultural Economists, and the Best Paper award from the Belgian Association of Agricultural Economists. The findings were used to formulate the Belgian Development Strategy on Agriculture and Food Security; more specifically on how to foster the participation of farmers in local, regional and international markets and value chains.

In addition, I have been co-PI on several projects:

• MRV4SOC: EU Horizon-funded project on Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of Soil Organic Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Balance (2023-2026)

• FOODCoST: EU Horizon-funded project on redefining the value of food (2022-2026)

• SUSTAIN-COCOA: Biodiversa-funded project on Sustainable sourcing policies for biodiversity protection, climate mitigation, and improved livelihoods in the cocoa sector (2021-2024)

• Innovating for efficient and inclusive value chains in Africa: Collaboration between IFPRI and KULeuven (2018-2022)