NEWSLETTER – February 2014

Division of
Bioeconomics
NEWSLETTER – February 2014
1. Publications
Papers recently published
Maertens, M. and E. Verhofstadt. 2013. Horticultural exports, female wage employment and
primary school enrolment: Theory and evidence from Senegal. Food Policy , vol. 43, pp 118-131
Raemakers, L., Vanderleyden, J. and M. Maertens. 2013 Adoption of climbing beans in the central
highlands of Kenya: an empirical analysis of farmers’ adoption decisions. African Journal of
Agricultural Research, vol 8(1), pp 1-19
Van den Broeck G., Maertens, M., Deckers., S. Romero, R., Verhulst, N., and B. Goyvaerts. 2013.
Adoption of conservation agriculture in the Mexican Bajio. Outlook on Agriculture, vol 42(3), pp 171178
Verhofstadt. E. and M. Maertens. 2013. Processes of modernization in food value chains: the case of
horticultural value chains in Rwanda. Outlook on Agriculture, vol 42(4), pp 251-261
Mugonola, B., Deckers, S., Poesen, J., Isabirye, M., Mathijs, E., 2013. Economics of grass strips used
as sediment filters in the riparian zones of Lake Victoria Uganda. Agroecology and Sustainable Food
Systems 37(9): 1040-1062.
Kenis, A., Lievens, M. (2014). Searching for 'the political' in environmental politics. Environmental
Politics, art.nr. 10.1080/09644016.2013.870067.
Papers recently accepted
Lambrecht I., Vanlauwe B., Merckx, R., and M. Maertens. 2014. Understanding the Dynamics of
Agricultural Technology Adoption: Mineral Fertilizer in D.R. Congo. World Development, forthcoming
De Valck, J., Vlaeminck, P., Broekx, S., Liekens, I., Aertsens, J., Chen, W., Vranken, L., Benefits of
clearing forest plantations to restore nature? Evidence from a discrete choice experiment in Flanders,
Belgium. Landscape and Urban Planning, forthcoming
Kenis, A., Lievens, M. Greening the economy or economizing the green project? When
environmental concerns are turned into a means to save the market. Review of Radical Political
Economics, forthcoming.
Kenis, A., and Mathijs, E., 2014. (De)politicising the local: The case of the Transition Towns
movement in Flanders (Belgium). Journal of Rural Studies, forthcoming.
Achten, W.M.J., Dillen, K., Trabucco, A., Verbist, B., Messemaker, L., Muys, B., Mathijs, E., 2014. The
economics and greenhouse gas balance of land conversion to Jatropha: the case of Tanzania. Global
Change Biology Bioenergy, forthcoming
Book chapters published
Swinnen, J., Colen, L. and M. Maertens. 2013. Constraints to smallholder participation in high-value
agriculture in West Africa. In Elbehri (ed): Rebuilding West Africa’s Food Potential: Policies and
market incentives for smallholder-inclusive food value chains. FAO, Rome.
Swinnen, J., Colen, L. and M. Maertens. 2014. The Role of Food Standards in Trade and
Development. In: Hammoudi, A., Grazia, C., Surry, Y. and J.B. Traversac (Eds). Food Safety, Market
Organization, Trade and Development. John Wiley & Sons Inc., New York, United States.
Schuster, M. and M. Maertens. 2014. The impact of private food standards on trade and
development: Evidence from Peru. In: Hammoudi, A., Grazia, C., Surry, Y. and J.B. Traversac (Eds).
Food Safety, Market Organization, Trade and Development. John Wiley & Sons Inc., New York, United
States.
Division members present
Erik Mathijs will present a Seminar on Sustainable development entitled “Exploration into
Sufficiency-based Business Models in the Food Sector” organised in Paris on 4th of March by IDDRI
and the Sustainable development Chair of the Ecole Polytechnique
Frederik Lerouge will give an oral presentation on resilience concepts at the GLP Open Science
Meeting 2014: Land Transformations: Between Global Challenges and Local Realities; Berlin 19th 21st March 2014
Isabel Lambrecht will present her paper “Does it make sense to target women for agricultural
technology adoption? Evidence from Eastern DR Congo” at the GlobalFood Symposium, Goettingen
on 25-26 April 2014.
2. Call for papers
The Rise of the 'Emerging Economies': Towards Functioning Agricultural Markets and Trade
Relations? IAMO Forum 2014. 25-27 June 2014 | Halle (Saale), Germany. For more information:
IAMO 2014
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs is now accepting applications from students to participate in
the 2014 Global Food Security Symposium Next Generation Delegation to be held on May, 22nd in
Washington DC. The program was launched to provide an opportunity for promising students to
engage in symposium discussions and to interact with policy, civil society, and business leaders
working on agriculture, food, and nutrition issues. For more information: here.
Call for papers of the 15th PhD symposium: Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics, to be held
in Brussels on the 30st April, 2013. Abstracts and full papers are accepted and have to be submitted
to [email protected]. Deadline for submission: 31st of March, 2014.
European Trade Study Group (ETSG) 2014; 16th Annual Conference in Munich, Germany; 11-13
September 2014. Deadline for paper submission: 9th May 2014. For more information: ETSG 2014
3. Conferences/ workshops
13th International Conference of the ISEE will take place in Iceland, August 13-15. To find out more
about the conference go to http://isee2014.yourhost.is/.
4. Fellowships/Projects/ Job opportunities
Our Division of Bioeconomics, is looking to recruit a post-doctoral researcher in the field of
agricultural economics, environmental economics or development economics. Interested candidates
should submit a CV (including a publication list), a motivation letter, and transcripts of obtained
degrees to Miet Maertens: [email protected]
The 3ie International Initiative for Impact Evaluation is offering five bursaries to nationals
residing in low- and middle-income countries to attend the Campbell Collaboration
Colloquium at Belfast, 16-19 June. The deadline for applications is 17 February. Read
more
The 3ie International Initiative for Impact Evaluation is providing a full scholarship for the University
of East Anglia (UEA) course on Impact Evaluation for Evidence-Based Policy in Development and
three full scholarships for the short course on Beyond Surveys and Experiments: Other Approaches to
Impact Evaluation. The courses will be held between 13 June and 11 July and 16-20 June 2014
respectively. Deadline for application: 14 March.
5. Other news
A warm welcome to three new PhD and two new pre-doctoral students joined us:
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Natalia Brzezina will work on the TRANSMANGO project, which aims to obtain a
comprehensive picture of the impacts of the global drivers of change on Europe's food and
nutrition security. She will focus on the European dimension of the project.
-
Pepijn de Snijder will work on the BELSPO project “Food4Sustainability”, which investigates
collective action for sustainable food systems in a changing climate
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Kewan Mertens will work on ‘Landsliding in Equatorial Africa: Socio-Economic Consequences
and Resilience Strategies’. The PhD is part of the Belspo project ‘Landslides in Equatorial
Africa: Identifying culturally, technically and economically feasible resilience
strategies’(AfReSlide)
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Moses Kakungulu from Uganda is planning to do his PhD in the framework of the VLIR TEAM
project with Busitema University
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Cindybell Dione Gamboa Barraza from Peru is planning to do her PhD in the framework of
the VLIR IUC program with the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina.
Ellen Verhofstadt will defend her PhD on March 10th, at 5 pm in Aula van de tweede hoofdwet.
Activities abroad: Teopista Akoyi left for Uganda to start up a survey among coffee farmers – she will
be back early May. Monica Schuster and Jana Schwarz are leaving soon to Peru to conduct a survey
among workers in the horticultural export industry and prepare for follow-up work on environmental
impacts of horticultural exports – they will be back in April. Genaye Tsegay is doing the second stage
of her field work in Ethiopia and will return in to Leuven in September. Isabel Lambrecht is currently
in the US, at Cornell University, as a visiting scholar and will come back in April.
Last but not least, due to the growth of our division, Natalia, Pepijn and Tessa have moved to office
00/01.205. This arrangement is temporary, while other solutions are being found for the office space
problem of our division.
Division of Bioeconomics
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Celestijnenlaan 200E
3001 Heverlee
Contact: Monica Schuster

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