SUSADICA – Structured doctoral programme on Sustainable Agricultural Development in Central Asia

Agricultural development in Central Asia requires a systemic approach that accounts for the various implications of agriculture resource use for economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Currently, there is no place in Central Asia where such an approach has been instituted in an academic environment that links cutting edge research to graduate education at international standards. This project aims at the creation of a collaborative research environment for doctoral researchers that is based at the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers (TIIAME) in Uzbekistan and that is established and maintained jointly with Justus Liebig University Gießen, IAMO, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC) and a network of international partners. The establishment of this Graduate School is driven by four guiding principles: (A) competitive and transparent recruitment of doctoral researchers, (B) focus on research topics that build a bridge between the international academic discourse and agricultural development challenges relevant for Central Asia, (C) structured education and training of the doctorate students that enables them to conduct independent research, and (D) integration into a network of international partners and events. Doctoral researchers for the Graduate School are recruited internationally in an open call for applications and will be selected based on their prior qualification. Research and education are structured along a matrix defined by the three dimensions of economic, social, and ecological sustainability and the five research areas (1) farm restructuring & labour relations, (2) agricultural innovations & technology, (3) agricultural policy, (4) environmental change & agriculture, (5) water governance.

Academic partners

Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), Germany website
Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany website
Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany website
Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers (TIIAME), Uzbekistan website

Project coordinator

Dr. Nozilakhon Mukhamedova, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany website

International Advisory Board

Prof. Dr. Anna-Katharina Hornidge, Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research, Bremen, Germany website
Prof. Dr. Phatima Mamardashvili, International School of Economics at Tbilisi State University, Georgia website
Prof. Dr. Olim Murtazaev, Samarkand Agricultural Institute, Uzbekistan website
Prof. Dr. Richard Pomfret, University of Adelaide, Australia website
Prof. Dr. Tommaso Trevisani, University of Naples, Italy website

Events

07 March 2023 | New research results presented at SUSADICA workshop
06.10.2022 | Workshop on Cooperation towards Sustainable Agricultural Development
03.-04.03.2022 ǀ SUSADICA workshop presented freshly published results and outlook for continued research
05.-06.11.2020 ǀ Virtual research workshop unites SUSADICA team, advisory board and partners from east to west
18.-19.02.2020 | Research workshop of the SUSADICA doctoral programme
13.09.2019 | SUSADICA doctoral programme researchers testing data collection instruments in Central Asia
30.08.2019 | IAMO contributes to structured education and training of PhD students in Central Asia
19.06.2019 | Academic symposium on Sustainable Agricultural Development in Central Asia
26.-27.03.2019 | Kick-off workshop workshop for the PhD program has started
30.10.-01.11.2018 | Conference “Social science knowledge and sustainable agricultural development along the Silk Road”
27.-29.06.2018 | Meet SUSADICA representatives during the IAMO Forum 2018 “Large-scale Agriculture – For Profit and Society?”, 27 - 29 June 2018 in Halle, Germany
09.06.2018 | First research seminar on “Innovative academic research and teaching on agricultural and water in Central Asia” and meeting between IAMO and Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineers (TIIAME) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan
05.-08.06.2018 ǀ SUSADICA project presentation by Martin Petrick at the Central Asian International Environmental Forum 2018 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

News

Please follow our regular updates on the SUSADICA Facebook page www.facebook.com/susadica

25.03.2019 | University of Giessen participates in international PhD program SUSADICA - Delegation from Uzbekistan visits the University
05.09.2018 | IAMO teams up with Asian Development Bank to support economic diversification in Kazakhstan
08.05.2018 | IAMO-led consortium launches new structured doctoral programme on Sustainable Agricultural Development in Central Asia

Related publications

Rufin, Philippe; Peña Guerrero, Mayra Daniela; Umirbekov, Atabek; Wei, Yanbing; Müller, Daniel (2022) Post-Soviet changes in cropping practices in the irrigated drylands of the Aral Sea Basin. Environmental Research Letters 17 (9).

Kurbanov, Zafar; Tadjiev, Abdusame; Djanibekov, Nodir (2022) Der Einsatz nachhaltiger landwirtschaftlicher Praktiken und betriebliche Investitionen in Gebieten mit Bewässerungslandwirtschaft in Zentralasien im Vergleich: Daten aus Erhebungen bei Agrarbetrieben in Kasachstan und Usbekistan. IAMO Jahreszahl 24: 73-83.

Kimsanova, Barchynai; Herzfeld, Thomas (2022) Policy analysis with Melitz-type gravity model: Evidence from Kyrgyzstan. Journal of Asian Economics 80, 101482.

Peña Guerrero, Mayra Daniela; Umirbekov, Atabek; Tarasova, Larisa; Müller, Daniel (2022) Comparing the performance of high-resolution global precipitation products across topographic and climatic gradients of Central Asia. International Journal of Climatology

Umirbekov, Atabek; Peña Guerrero, Mayra Daniela; Müller, Daniel (2022) Regionalization of climate teleconnections across Central Asian mountains improves the predictability of seasonal precipitation. Environmental Research Letters 17 (5)

Petrick, Martin (2021) Post-Soviet agricultural restructuring: A success story after all? Comparative Economic Studies 63 (4): 623-647.

Davron Niyazmetov, Ilkhom Soliev, Insa Theesfeld (2021) Ordered to volunteer? Institutional compatibility assessment of establishing agricultural cooperatives in Uzbekistan, Land Use Policy, Volume 108, DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105538

Hannes Knorr, Insa Theesfeld & Ilkhom Soliev (2021) License to drill: typology of groundwater use regulations in agriculture of Uzbekistan, International Journal of Water Resources Development, DOI: 10.1080/07900627.2021.1924633

Wegmarshaus, Gert-Rüdiger (2017) Uzbekistan’s higher education and research system: Main actors and recent reforms of doctoral graduation. IAMO Discussion Paper No. 165, Halle (Saale): IAMO. Download

Ganiev, Ibragim; Djanibekov, Nodir; Hasanov, Shavkat; Petrick, Martin (2017) The state of doctoral research in Uzbekistan: Results of a survey of doctoral students in agricultural economics. IAMO Discussion Paper No. 164, Halle (Saale): IAMO. Download