28/08/2025 | EAAE Pre-congress workshop by BioValue and Radiant
As part of the XVIII European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE) Congress, the Horizon 2020 sister projects BioValue and Radiant have organized a workshop titled
“Promoting Agri-Food Chain Diversification through Underutilized Crops: Socio-Economic Dilemmas and Policy Solutions”
which was successfully held on 26th August 2025 at the University of Bonn. The event shed light on the untapped potential of underutilized crops in enhancing biodiversity and resilience within Europe’s agri-food systems.
Selected from a competitive pool of applications, the workshop brought together a diverse group of experts to engage in rich discussions around socio-economic challenges, innovative strategies, and policy solutions for fostering crop diversity.
It featured two rounds of impulse presentations, highlighting real-world case studies from across Europe. It showcased contributions from some of Europe’s foremost agricultural research institutions, including: Justus Liebig University Giessen (Germany), University of Bologna (Italy), The James Hutton Institute (Scotland), Wageningen University (Netherlands), and CIHEAM (Greece), among others. Presentations addressed a wide range of key topics—consumer behaviour and market acceptance, value chain development, stakeholder collaboration, sustainability assessments, and innovative adoption strategies.
The impulse talks were followed by an interactive session that actively involved participants through methods such as pinboard brainstorming, index card feedback, and live polling, fostering the generation of concrete insights and actionable recommendations. Through dynamic exchanges and co-creation, around 30 participants from the EAAE Congress discussed the main challenges and opportunities and developed recommendations to mainstream underutilized crops in agri-food systems. The participatory part found that risk sharing among the different value chain actors; raising consumer awareness about the environmental and health benefits of underutilised crops; as well as technical and financial support are the best strategies to promote integration of underutilised crops in value chains.
The workshop was led by members of the BioValue project from the JLU Giessen, namely, by Dr. Irina Solovieva and Dr. Pavlina Miteva-Bölter; with support from other colleagues from the BioValue and Radiant projects.
The BioValue project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Grant Agreement No. 101000499.
