Current Bachelor and Master thesis research topics at the Chair Group of Production and Resource Economics
Note: The thesis research work can be written either in English or German. Research works will be supervised by the academic staff at the Chair Group. Interested students in a given topic can contact Dr. Getachew Abate Kassa (getachew.abate@tum.de) for further information on thesis research procedure and supervision assignments. Following are topics that are currently available for BSc and MSc thesis research at the Chair Group.
Farmers´ motivations for participating in results-based agri-environmental-climate schemes (B.Sc.-thesis)
Contact: Carolin Canessa, Philipp Mennig
Agri-environmental-climate schemes (AECS) are instruments under the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) providing funds to farmers implementing sustainable agricultural practices such as crop diversification, preservation of grassland, input reduction, organic farming, etc. In recent years, new schemes’ designs have been proposed to tackle farmers’ reluctance to adopt these measures. Result-based approaches have received growing interest because of their flexibility, increased acceptance, and environmental effectiveness. Nevertheless, they also present some limitations. For instance, they shift all risks to farmers, have high monitoring costs, and often offer dissatisfactory payments.
This research aims at looking at motivations for farmers to participate in result-based schemes. Farm-level survey data from case studies will be used to analyse how attitudes influence participation. The project will include: i) a general review of result-based schemes’ key features; ii) a review of the case-study context; iii) an analysis of survey data. Interest in statistics and the farming sector is required. For more information, please get in touch with Carolin Canessa (carolin.canessa[at]tum.de) and Philipp Mennig (philipp.mennig[at]tum.de).
Identifying financing opportunities for the adoption of Climate-Smart Agriculture in India (M.Sc. thesis)
Contact: Roberto Villalba
India faces erratic climatic conditions, environmental degradation and a rapidly growing population. To balance environmental sustainability with agricultural growth, recent research has focused on the adoption of climate-smart agricultural (CSA) technologies. However, costs often pose a barrier to adoption. Among possible financing mechanisms, Value Chain Financing (VCF) offers a promising approach as it uses collection action between actors to overcome scale limitations, reduce risk and improve competitiveness. Against this backdrop, this project will work with Indian agricultural/financing companies to collect data and evaluate the potential of value chain finance for the adoption of CSA practices. As the project directly works with Indian value chain actors, Indian students are preferred.
Task of the M.Sc. student:
- collect quantitative and qualitative data from value chain actors in collaboration with agricultural/financing companies (contacts provided by the supervisors) about the financing mechanisms of rice and wheat; remote data collection (e.g. online interviews) are allowed
- evaluate the performance of the different financing mechanisms and their potential to upscale the adoption of CSA
- assess the role of value chain financing for specific CSA technologies (e.g., laser land levelling, zero till wheat)
This thesis is part of the project, "Value Chain Financing for Climate Smart Agriculture in India", funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and supported in partnership by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security in South Asia (CCAFS). Thus, students will be encouraged to disseminate their findings in a final symposium with local stakeholders and a peer reviewed publication. For more information, please contact Roberto Villalba (roberto.villalba[at]tum.de) and Terese Venus (terese.venus[at]tum.de).
Thesis topics offered in cooperation with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Cali, Colombia
- Qualitative assessment of adoption factors for forage technologies in Latin America
- In-depth analysis of the extension system for livestock and tropical forages in Colombia and several Central American countries.
- In-depth analysis of the existing seed systems for tropical forages in Colombia and several Central American countries.
Depending on the topic CIAT offers the chance to do part of the research at their site in Colombia. For more information, please contact philipp.mennig[at]tum.de.