Value chains is the hot topic currently in agricultural economics. As a result, not surprisingly, many people came to the poster session, although it was organized very late in the afternoon of the second day, just before the biggest event of the conference, the "Gala dinner’’.

This year, there were up to 15 posters registered, and they had only one hour to present their work. I felt very positive as I learned about the many attempts to find the bottlenecks in the value chains of tropical and sub-tropical products in developing countries, perhaps leading to new suggestions and solutions for farmers. While Sham UI Haq and Yee Mon Aung worked on rice and pulses in Myanmar, Hazal Akcakara from the University of Bonn, evaluated the impact of sustainability certification on palm oil.

The amount of money earned from cultivating vegetables in Kenya, growing peppers in India, producing timber products and farming Pangasius in Vietnam is the common denominator in the session of value chains. Similarly, wealth in Bangladesh determines a person’s willingness to purchase an insurance.

MONISH JOSE: Value Chain Analysis of Medicinal Plant Market in Kerala Since Kerala is the world’s most famous area for ayurvedic medicine, there is an increasing demand in ayurvedic plants, while the area under medical cultivation stays the same. According to this circumstance, the region has to face several problems, which have to be solved. Most important, there has to be set up a price regulatory body and an education system to teach the farmers about scientific harvesting methods. BOHUMIL HAVRLAND: Agricultural Marketing Information System (AMIS) The Agricultural Marketing Information System (AMIS) has been developed with the help of agricultural producers in the Republic of Moldova. It operates as a facilitator system and is destined to play an important role for producers as well as for tradesmen and middlemen to reach information about each other. Especially poor famers have the possibility to access the system in different centers, which are located all over Moldova. DANSINOU SILVERE TOVIGNAN: Agricultural Value Chain Modeling and Governance: The Case of Shea Butter in Benin As agriculture is very important in developing countries, value chain promotion is a development strategy which should help local farmers to get access to the global market. The example of the shea butter value chain of Benin shows us, that many actors are involved in the chain, fulfilling their specific functions. This leads to a higher profit for all the actors belonging to the supply chain.