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Evaluation & Impact Assessment

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Interventions to improve organic and agroecological farming systems must be based on solid evidence on what works and what does not. Impact evaluation is comprised of both rigorous econometric and modelling approaches to assess the effects of policies, technologies, capacity development and other related factors. In the Socioeconomic Department at FiBL, the group applies these approaches to evaluate a range of sustainability strategies, such as agroforestry field schools, voluntary certification schemes, and organic breeding innovations. The focus of the group lies on assessing economic and livelihood effects, alongside a strong interest in combining economic and environmental performance indicators, for example assessing eco-efficiency outcomes. The projects span are located in a wide variety of regions, from Europe to West Africa and Southeast Asia. Impact evaluation capabilities of the group are complemented by competences in adoption studies (identifying drivers for innovation uptake), monitoring (tracking changes throughout an intervention), innovation system assessments (describing networks and interactions) and scaling analyses (understanding scaling potential).

Currently, the group is investigating the following impact, adoption and scaling issues in organic and agroecological farming systems:

  • Impacts of regulations and innovations for boosting the use of organic seed in Germany, Italy and the UK
  • Impacts of organic certification on the economic performance of dairy farms in 16 countries in Europe
  • Adoption of carbon farming in Switzerland
  • Impacts of participatory guarantee systems in vegetable farming in Vietnam
  • Adoption of agroforestry and impact of agroforestry field schools in Mali and Senegal
  • Global metrics for assessing research and extension systems

Contact

Projects

StatusFiBLTitleStartEnd
ongoing CH AnalysinG of fossil-ENergy dependence in agriculture to increase RESilience against input price fluctuations (AgEnRes) 01.01.2024 31.12.2027
ongoing CH Valorising and balancing the ecosystem service benefits offered by legumes, and legume-based cropped systems (LegumES) 01.01.2024 31.01.2028
ongoing CH Benefits of organic breeding: taking stock and raising awareness (benefits.biobreeding) 01.11.2023 31.10.2026
ongoing CH Quality Food Trade Program in Ukraine, Phase II (QFTP) 01.07.2023 30.06.2026
ongoing CH Monetary valuation of soil ecosystem services and creation of initiatives to invest in soil health (InBestSoil) 01.01.2023 31.12.2026
ongoing CHEU Paving the Way towards Digitalisation Enabling Agroecology for European Farming Systems (PATH2DEA) 01.01.2023 31.12.2025
ongoing CH Transformation for sustainable nutrient supply and management (trans4num) 01.12.2022 30.11.2026
ongoing CH Scaling-up Digital Training Materials for Smallholder Farmers in East Africa (Digital Training Materials Phase 2) 01.07.2022 30.06.2025
ongoing CH Agroecological transition and organic certification in Vietnam to empower rural communities (SNF Agro-econvert) 01.04.2022 31.03.2025
ongoing CH Climate Neutral Farms (ClieNFarms) 01.01.2022 31.12.2025
completed CH Assessment of research for development pathways (R4D-ASSESS) 01.01.2022 30.06.2023
ongoing CH Strengthening Global Assessments of Agricultural Sustainability (SustainAG) 01.10.2021 31.12.2025
ongoing CH Synergistic use and protection of natural resources for rural livelihoods through systematic integration of crops, shrubs and livestock in the Sahel (SustainSAHEL) 01.09.2020 01.09.2025
ongoing CH Goal-oriented biodiversity promotion in the Canton of Zurich (ZiBiF) 01.06.2020 01.06.2028
completed CH Against the Grain: A full cost accounting approach to assessing the economic returns of crop improvement in organic agriculture (Against the Grain) 01.01.2020 31.03.2021
completed CH Linking organic farmers in Muranga, Kenya, to markets through value chain, agribusiness and technical capacity development (Africa ProEco PMCA Bachmann) 01.10.2019 31.08.2022
completed CHEU Engagement of the organic value chain to support Organic Breeding in Europe (ENGAGEMENT.BIOBREEDING EUROPE) 01.09.2019 31.08.2022
completed CH Higher Value Added Trade from the Organic and the Dairy Sector in Ukraine (Quality FOOD Trade Program) 23.08.2019 30.06.2023
completed CH GenTORE - Genomic management tools to optimize resilience and efficiency (GenTORE) 01.08.2017 31.07.2022
completed CHDE LIVESEED - Improve performance of organic agriculture by boosting organic seed and plant breeding efforts across Europe (LIVESEED) 01.06.2017 30.09.2021
ongoing CHAT Sustainability Monitoring and Assessment Routine (SMART) (SMART) 01.05.2012

Team

Group Evaluation & Impact Assessment
Blockeel Johan
Ex-post impact evaluation of agroecological strategies, sustainability assessment
+41 (0)62 865-0479
Blumenstein Benjamin
Production economics, system modelling and risk assessment, sustainability assessment
+41 (0)62 865-0431
Grovermann Christian
Leader of the Group Evaluation & Impact Assessmentex-post impact evaluation of agroecological strategies, innovation systems
+41 (0)62 865-0450
Meier Claudia
Consumer research, statistics, data science
+41 (0)62 865-7283
Möhring Anke
Production economics and modelling, sustainability assessment at farm level, data science
+41 (0)62 865-0402
Quiédeville Sylvain
Ex-post impact evaluation of agroecological strategies, innovation systems
+41 (0)62 865-0424
Rees Charles
Agricultural economics and policy, econometrics, soil health promotion measures
+41 (0)62 865-0448
Tennhardt Lina
Sustainability assessment, sustainable supply chains, impact evaluation
+41 (0)62 865-1747