The Inter-Conference Symposium of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) entitled “Agricultural Transitions along the Silk Road” took place on April 4-7, 2016, in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It was organized by the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO) and hosted by Kazakh National Agrarian University (KazNAU). With around 200 participants from over 25 countries, the conference included over 90 presentations, half of which were made by researchers based at institutions in the Silk Road countries.

The aim of the Symposium was to provide a platform for knowledge exchange and networking on three sub-themes: agricultural restructuring, natural resource management, and regional trade and integration.

ISET-PI was represented at Symposium the by the entire APRC team. They presented the following papers:

• Price transmission on the wheat flour market in Georgia (by Ia Katsia and Pati Mamardashvili)

• Measuring food price volatility in Georgia (by Salome Gelashvili and Pati Mamardashvili)

• Sustainable development of tea cooperatives and the tea value chain: the case of Georgia (by Irakli Kochlamazashvili and Nino Kakulia)

• Investigating the impacts of the agricultural input subsidy program in Georgia (by Pati Mamardashvili, Irakli Kochlamazashvili, Salome Gelashvili, and Ia Katsia)

During the closing session of the conference, APRC head Pati Mamardashvili talked about ISET and ISET Policy Institute and invited other participating organizations to collaborate on student exchanges, joint study programs, research projects, seminars, and conferences.

We wish to thank Prof. Stephan Cramon von Taubadel for promoting ISET’s participation in this international event.