53th Annual conference of the Swiss Society for Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Sociology (SGA)
Keynote Speakers
- Christian Hofer, Direktor vom Bundesamt für Landwirtschaft
- Gabriele Mack, Head of the Economic Modelling and Policy Analysis group, Agroscope
- Jeroen Candel, Associate Professor Public Administration and Policy group, Wageningen University
- Laura Spring, Co-Leiterin Politik, Bio Suisse
53th Annual conference of the Swiss Society for Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Sociology (SGA) on the topic «Goal Conflicts & Incentive Structures in Agricultural and Food Policies»
8. - 9. May 2025 at the Federal Office for Agriculture, Bern, Switzerland
European agricultural and food policy is currently the subject of political and social debate about its future development. In Switzerland, the Federal Council, in its report "The Future Direction of Agricultural Policy" of June 2022, outlined how the Swiss agricultural and food sector can make an even greater contribution to food security in the future. The focus is on the entire food system, from production to consumption. The objectives of agricultural and food policy are ambitious and multifaceted, covering food security, self-sufficiency, environmental protection, biodiversity, climate change mitigation, animal welfare, farmers' incomes and consumer prices. However, neither the EU nor Switzerland currently meets all of these objectives.
Moreover, there are often trade-offs in the pursuit of certain objectives. For example, stricter environmental policies may reduce food production and increase consumer prices, animal welfare improvements may conflict with environmental goals, and increasing farmers' incomes may conflict with the goal to reduce consumer prices. However, the magnitude of these trade-offs is often unknown, uncertain and highly context-specific. Strategies are needed to reduce trade-offs, for example through the introduction of innovative policy and management approaches and technologies in agricultural production and the use of innovative policy approaches and instruments. Finally, there is a need to balance objectives and set priorities at the policy level.
The Swiss Society for Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Sociology wants to address these challenges at its conference 2025, bringing together scientists and representatives from politics, administration and practice. The aim is to provide a platform for the presentation of innovative ideas and approaches, novel methodologies for policy evaluation and design, and the exchange of practical experiences. Particular attention will be paid to economic, sociological and political analyses of the following issues
- Quantification of trade-offs in agricultural policy objectives
- Methodologies for trade-off analysis in agricultural and food systems
- Assessment of agricultural and food policy objectives and trade-offs from different perspectives, e.g. farmers, citizens, consumers, industry, policy
- Innovative policy instruments to achieve policy objectives and reduce trade-offs
- Evaluation of agricultural and food policies
- Innovations and applications in ex-ante and ex-post policy evaluation
- Approaches and incentives for the parallel further development of agricultural policy and food policy
- Effects of policy measures on behavior of farmers, consumers and up- and downstream industries
- Attitudes and behaviors of farmers to adopt innovative approaches and technologies
- Factors influencing uptake of policy measures
- Other relevant agricultural economic or agricultural sociological issues
In addition to the exchange between different actors from Switzerland, international networking is an important goal, and we therefore welcome participants from other countries. The conference will be held in English, German and French. There will be no translation.
There will be an award for the best poster and the best presentation.
Conference fee
CHF 290.- / CHF 230.- for SSA members (become a member)
Conference Organizers (from the Board of the Swiss Society for Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Sociology):
- Robert Finger (rofinger@ethz.ch), Agricultural Economics and Policy Group, ETH Zurich
- Nadja El Benni (nadja.el-benni@agroscope.admin.ch), Research Division Sustainability Assessment and Agricultural Management, Agroscope
- Phatima Mamardashvili (phatima.mamardashvili@bfh.ch), Bern University of Applied Sciences / School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL
- Markus Wildisen (markus.wildisen@blw.admin.ch), Federal Office for Agriculture