Faculty and students from the College of Economics and Management at Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU) participated in the 32nd International Conference of Agricultural Economists 2024 (ICAE 2024) held in New Delhi, India from Aug 2-7.
The opening ceremony of ICAE is held in New Delhi, India from Aug 2-7. [Photo/news.hzau.edu.cn]
The theme of this year's conference was "Transformation Towards Sustainable Agri-Food Systems". It addressed the urgent need for sustainable agricultural development in response to global climate change, natural resource degradation and rising production costs and global conflicts. Over 1,000 representatives from 75 countries attended.
Indian Prime Minister Modi gave a welcome speech at the opening ceremony, expressing his hopes for advancing global agricultural development.
During the conference, Li Xiaoyun, a professor at HZAU and a co-chair of the Global Food Security Association for Young Scientists (GFSAYS), organized a thematic seminar titled "Transformation of Agri-food System in China: Current Status, Challenges and Future Perspectives".
The seminar explored topics such as global food security and nutritional health, climate change and environment and resource scarcity, providing solutions to the problems from various angles, including improving natural resource utilization efficiency and crop production layout, green production, sustainable diets and reducing food waste and loss.
Mao Haiou and Li Wenjing, two associate professors from HZAU and Song Long, an HZAU PhD student, presented their papers.
Huang Jikun, a professor at the School of Advanced Agricultural Sciences of Peking University, provided detailed comments and suggestions on the three reports and commended the work of GFSAYS. Wang Huaiyu, an associate professor at Beijing Institute of Technology and Lena Kuhn, a senior researcher at the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO) gave professional feedback on the research methods and data processing of the reports.
Additionally, HZAU's PhD students Liu Chujie and Zhao Longqiang, and Master's students Xie Qing, Pan Cong and Zhao Shilong delivered oral reports on various topics.
During the conference, Li also led the faculty and students on visits to GFSAYS's partner organizations, including the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in India, and discussed GFSAYS's cooperation agenda with the scholars from these institutions.
ICAE, hosted by the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE), is held every three years.
The IAAE is a global professional membership association dedicated to advancing research and development in agricultural economics, promoting international collaboration among agricultural economists and contributing to the development of sustainable and nutritious agricultural food systems.
Besides those from HZAU, the Chinese delegation also included scholars from the China Center for Agricultural Policy, Peking University, China Agricultural University, Northwest A&F University, and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
