IAMO Researchers Visited Sichuan, China

12 March 2019

On the invitation of Prof. Shemei ZHANG, a former IAMO guest researcher, IAMO researchers, Dr. Axel Wolz and Dr. Zhanli Jerry Sun paid a visit to the Faculty of Management, Sichuan Agricultural University during the week Feburary 23 to March 1, 2019. They are collaborating on researchers on agricultural cooperatives, especially about a specific model of land shareholding cooperatives (LSC) which is operational in Chongzhou County since 2013. This model comes close to the model of agricultural production cooperatives formed on a voluntary basis which are - according to agricultural economic theory - not competitive against corporate farms on the one side and family farms on the other.

Besides visiting and conducint in-depth interviews with several cooperatives in the region, Dr. Sun and Dr Wolz gave lectures to the staff and students of the Faculty of Management on the complex system thinking of land systems change and introduction to agricultural cooperatives in Germany and EU, respectively. They were welcomed faculty members led by Prof Xinghong Fu and Hongxin Lan, the deans of the faculty. Both sides discussed on the past and future collaborations on academic exchanges.