This was a clear message from the discussions at the triannual International Conference of Agricultural Economists in Vancouver, Canada.

From the 28^th of July to the 2^nd of August the world’s agricultural economists got together at the 30^th International Conference of Agricultural Economists in Vancouver, Canada. Seven members of staff from the Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development at the University of Pretoria; Prof Ferdi Meyer, Dr Marnus Gouse, Dr Marlene Louw, Dr Tracy Davids, Mr Divan van der Westhuizen, Dr Melissa van der Merwe and Dr Danie Jordaan, attended and presented their work at this conference.

This year’s conference theme “New Landscapes and New Mandates for Agriculture” allowed for exciting discussions and opened up many opportunities for future research, particularly in the African context. To showcase some of the work already done in this regard at the University of Pretoria Dr Davids presented some of the results from her innovative structure for partial equilibrium modelling in Eastern and Southern Africa to Quantify the regional impact of export controls in Southern African maize markets. Expanding on the Southern African discussion, Prof Meyer and Dr Davids participated in another organised session, along with Prof Julian Binfield from the University of Missouri, to discuss the development of the soybean industry in Southern and Eastern Africa and highlighted some key areas for growth in the region. In another organised session, in collaboration with several researchers from Michigan State University, Mr van der Westhuizen discussed sections of his own research outcomes on mechanisation and the changing nature of farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

Following the rise in food prices and the subsequent impact on food security, globally as well as locally, Dr Louw presented her work on the Fundamental drivers of food inflation in South Africa and alluded to the need for a holistic approach to combat particularly food inflation.

Staying on South African turf, Dr van der Merwe and Dr Jordaan shared their work on value chains in South Africa. Dr Jordaan talked about his work on Measuring the fragility of agribusiness chains. In his discussion, he mentioned that value chains should be managed and structured in a way that makes these chains bounce back like a rubber ball when they are stressed by risk and uncertainty. Dr van der Merwe in turn, presented on the importance of Aligning enforcement and governance mechanisms to effectively protect and govern agricultural products. Her key take away was that it is only when these mechanisms are aligned that we can guarantee consumers of the credence attributes of products (think free range and from the Karoo), and safeguard the supply chain entities against exploitation.

Although the team representing the Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development enjoyed sharing their research with the community of Agricultural Economists, the contacts that they made and the promise of future collaborations with highly regarded international agricultural economists surpassed their greatest expectations. The team returns home with new research ideas, broader networks, a renewed passion for the discipline, and prospects to advance the department’s work at the University of Pretoria.