The conference 

From June 12th  to 15th 2018, the World Bank and the International Consortium on Applied Bioeconomy Research organized in partnership a conference on rural development.

The value chain of the agricultural field is experiencing a fast transformation: changes of consumer demand, growing concerns against eco-friendly products, pollution and food contamination, the rapid improvement of biological sciences and information technology offer new expectations on increased productivity. Adapting to these changes is therefore a challenge for smallholder farmers.

There still exist few researches and few development programs based on that chain of value, particularly in the food and agricultural areas. The conference focused on the new value chain’s impacts as well as the technology’s impacts on agribusiness and farmers, on their ability to implement innovations. It will also focus on policy and institutional involvements to contribute to the transformation of the agri-food chain of values. 

Alain de Janvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet (University of Berkeley and FERDI) participated in this conference where they analysed the impact of agriculture for development 10 years after the publication of the World Bank's 2008 Development Report.