Publications

Respecting social thresholds and staying within planetary boundaries is a major challenge, especially in the agrifood system. The growth of complex global value chains has intensified these challenges, creating gaps in sustainability governance in global agrifood trade. In response, various sustainable value chain initiatives have emerged, including voluntary sustainability standards (VSS), aimed at addressing these challenges. VSS, such as ...

Context

This report details the findings of the CoffeeBridge project, which investigated the potential of Robusta coffee production in the Tshopo province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Coffee is a critical agricultural commodity globally, with Coffea arabica (Arabica) and Coffea canephora (Robusta) being the two main commercially significant species. While Arabica is valued for its superior sensory profile, Robusta is ...

Torbjørg Jevnaker, Nicolò Rossetto, Sofia Nicolai, Max Münchmeyer (Eds.) 94 Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies-EUI 2.4 Renewable energy policy Athir Nouicer, Daniele Stampatori, Theodoros Iliopoulos In this section, we first give an overview of what renewable energy is and explore why the EU cares about it. We then look at how renewable energy is used in different sectors. Finally, we describe the most relevant strategies and legislation ...

Whether Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) - such as Fairtrade, GlobalGAP or Organic - may contribute to economic sustainability has been subject to vigorous debate over the past decades. To analyze the welfare effects of VSS for family farms, previous studies rely on single equation models which enable analyzing if (some) VSS affect welfare, but not how (some) VSS affect welfare – or not. Hence, little is known about the mechanisms and ...

In recent years, the Internet of Things (IoT) is recognized as one of the most important areas of future technology and is gaining vast attention from many applications. The goal behind IoT is to connect all devices such as cars, appliances, equipments, and empower the capability to self-report in real-time. This improves efficiency in different applications such as - smart homes, healthcare solutions, smart cities, and smart agriculture. For ...

While the benefits of using futures to manage price risk are widely recognised, only certain groups of farmers have suitable futures at their disposal. This paper discusses an innovative instrument, developed in the Belgian-Dutch pear market, that provides an alternative to futures markets by creating a market for price swaps. Thus, the instrument provides some benefits of market-traded derivatives (like futures) while remaining a relatively ...

This paper focuses on the impact of the geographical indications (GIs) of Koerintji cinnamon on its value chain. The study was performed from September 2017 to November 2017 in Talang Kemuning, Kerinci regency, Indonesia. A village farmers' group was surveyed using a semi-structured questionnaire, roundtable discussions, interviews, and direct observations to understand whether the GIs improve income, source of production, and promote product ...

Extreme weather events are expected to increase with climate change. Such events are detrimental for local economic activity but could also affect countries that are not directly exposed through global agricultural production shortfalls and price surges. Here, estimations for 75 countries show that increases in global agricultural commodity prices caused by harvest or weather disruptions in other regions of the world significantly curtail ...

Studies that examine the impact of food prices on conflict usually assume that (all) changes in international food prices are exogenous shocks for individual countries or local areas. By isolating strictly exogenous shifts in global food commodity prices, we show that this assumption could seriously distort estimations of the impact on conflict in African regions. Specifically, we show that increases in food prices that are caused by harvest ...