Voices of AgEnRes - Interview with Franziska Appel

Interviewer: Could you briefly introduce your organisation and its role in AgEnRes? 

Franziska: My institute is the Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies. Our main focus is on countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asiaten, and China, particularly during their transformation processes. Although this project doesn't specifically target these countries, we have a long history of modelling change and development, and observing dynamic processes. In AgEnRes, our role is to analyse the structural impacts of new technologies. 

Interviewer: What are the main challenges that you foresee in achieving the project's goals, and how do you plan to address them? 

Franziska: Speaking for my work package, the main challenge is to improve the behavioural assumptions of the models to make them more realistic. Currently, many models assume farmers are perfect rational profit maximisers, but we know this isn't accurate. Improving these behavioural assumptions is a highlight and a challenge because there's a reason many models still use the homo economicus assumption. 

Interviewer: How do you plan to address this specific challenge? 

Franziska: I'm glad we are collaborating with the University of Trento and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), as they are the behavioural experts. I have a long history of collaboration with Jens Rommel from SLU, and we’ve planned to tackle this challenge for about ten years. With these partners, I believe we can successfully address it. 

Interviewer: How do you see the outcomes of this project benefiting farmers and agricultural communities specifically? 

Franziska: My work package is more aimed at the stakeholder and policy maker level rather than directly at farmers. More realistic models can inform policy makers on how to improve policy measures, which will help farmers adapt to useful tools identified in other work packages. It can also assist in identifying where subsidies might help overcome structural frictions. 

Interviewer: Are there any exciting developments or milestones that you're looking forward to as the project progresses? 

Franziska: I'm really looking forward to having a behavioural module ready that can be used by our model or other models. This will significantly improve behavioural modelling. Additionally, we will have three new case study regions for our model, allowing us to focus on common challenges and observe them from different modelling perspectives. 

Interviewer: Finally, what message would you like to convey to stakeholders and the wider community about the importance of the project? 

Franziska: I hope stakeholders remain curious about the outcomes and tools we provide. I look forward to exchanging ideas with them, as stakeholder involvement is key. I hope to provide interesting tools, results, and demonstrations through our work. 

Interviewer: Thank you very much. 

Franziska: You're welcome.