DITAC

The demand for high-quality, healthy and diverse food is growing globally. Countries such as China, which has a low level of natural resources per capita, must meet this demand by engaging in intensive agriculture or importing food from the world market. Digitalisation strategies have emerged in recent years as a potential solution and means of making local production and supply chains more sustainable, crisis-resistant and resource-efficient.

The main goal of the DITAC project is to analyse and assess digitalisation processes in China’s agrifood sector with regard to their effects on production, use of resources and trade. The project aims at systematically assessing the status quo of China’s digital agriculture as a basis for econometric and behavioural economic analyses of the adaptation and adoption of selected technologies and the empirical estimation of the economic and environmental consequences. The findings will serve as a basis to consider future development paths and assess the impact of digital transformation processes from a global perspective. They will also provide important insights into the effects on international trade relations. The project will act as the starting point for the establishment of an international “Digital innovations in transition economies” competence centre at IAMO. Project results will furthermore be made available to policy-makers and industry members as part of an extensive transfer concept. The results, such as those relating to innovation transfer mechanisms or resource-saving technologies, will be transferred via IAMO’s existing implementation projects.

• Prof. Dr. Wei Si, China Agricultural University (CAU)
• Prof. Dr. Longjiang Yuan, Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (IAED-CAAS)
• Prof. Dr. Liangzhi You, Macro Agriculture Research Institute, Huazhong Agricultural University (MARI-HZAU) / International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
• German-Sino Agricultural Center (DCZ)

• German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany