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Dr Yiorgos Gadanakis

Photograph of Yiorgos Gadanakis

Programme director of the Agricultural Business Management degree (since September 2017)

Director of the Farm Management Unit (FMU), School of Agriculture, Policy and Development. (Since June 2016)

Areas of interest

An indicative list of topics of particular research interest include:

  • Sustainable intensification of farming systems
  • Management of natural resources (i.e. irrigation efficiency and soil management)
  • Agricultural financial management
  • Spatial differences and their impact in farm productivity and efficiency
  • Farm planning and control
  • Innovation in agriculture
  • Developing sustainable food value chains.

Dr Yiorgos Gadanakis' research falls under the categories of Agricultural Economics, Agri-Business management and Environmental Economics and agricultural policy. He has considerable expertise in the design and execution of farm production efficiency and productivity research studies both in the UK and in low/middle income countries.

Methodologically his research relies on econometric and linear programming (optimisation) methods (Data Envelopment Analysis, Stochastic Frontier Analysis, Mathematical programming and optimisation models). His most recent research focuses on Sustainable Intensification of Agricultural Systems in the UK, measures of Total Factor Productivity, Innovation and Technical Efficiency of farming systems.

Postgraduate supervision

Current PhD students:

George Vittis - PhD research topic: "Spatial Planning and Rural Development for a Sustainable Agricultural Sector" Supervisors: Associate Professor Simon Mortimer and Dr Yiorgos Gadanakis

Konstantinos Iliakis - PhD research topic: "Decomposing sustainable capacity change at farm level or arable farming systems considering the short and long-term impact of changes" Supervisors: Professor Julian Park and Dr Yiorgos Gadanakis

Samal Kalyeva - PhD research topic: "The design and implementation of a rural support policy for the development of small dairy household farms in Kazakhstan" Supervisors: Associate Professor Simon Mortimer and Dr Yiorgos Gadanakis

Teaching

Module convenor: 

  • British Agriculture in Practice (AP108)
  • Agricultural Field Study tour (AP2A20)
  • Introduction to Management (AP1SB1)Business Management (AP2SB2)

I am responsible for delivering the lectures of the Business Planning and Control (AP3A82) module and I am also actively engaged into the Farm Business Management (AP2A64) module.

Research projects

Current Research Projects:

H2020 - RECAP: Personalised Public Services in Support of the Implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy.

The RECAP project aims to develop improved remote monitoring of CAP obligations and to supplement the in-field inspections procedures eliminating several of the burdens. Furthermore, RECAP will offer farmers a tool supporting them to comply with regulations imposed by the CAP, providing personalised information for simplifying the interpretation of complex regulations, and early alerts on potential non-conformities. RECAP will allow agricultural consultants to access data available in the platform, subject to security and privacy policies, and to develop their own services within the platform using design tools, libraries, and communication with the database under an open approach.
Completed Research Projects:

Rural Business Research Funding: Innovation, productivity and financial performance in UK agriculture: How far can secondary data go in the development of a composite indicator of a farm level agricultural innovation?

This study seeks to understand and quantify the role of innovation in a more holistic sense, in driving change in farm productivity. Within this overarching goal are a number of sub-objectives: (i) by a review of the literature, map the variables (i.e. management actions) that might reasonably be identified as innovation, or increasing the likelihood of innovation; (ii) classify these variables as either innovation in management or technical change; (iii) make recommendations for the future collection of alternative Farm Business Survey indicators to address deficiencies in the coverage of innovation.

FP7 - SUSTAINMED: Sustainable agri-food systems and rural development in the Mediterranean Partner Countries

The overall objective of the SUSTAINMED project has been to examine and assess the impacts of EU and national agricultural, rural, environmental, and trade policies in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region, namely in so-called Mediterranean Partner Countries (MPCs) as well as in Turkey. The impacts to be analysed were very diverse, including socio-economic structural changes, employment and migrations trends, income distribution and poverty alleviation, resource management, trade liberalisation, as well as commercial relations with major trading partners (in particular the EU), and competitiveness in international markets. The rationale for such a wide research agenda was the realization that trade liberalization alone, which has been the linchpin of Euro-Mediterranean cooperation for decades, will not be sufficient to promote sustainable development in the Mediterranean region.

Greek Ministry of Rural Development and Food: Ex-post and ex-ante evaluation of rural development and regional plans strengthening innovation capacity and sustainability in the agricultural sector

Interreg - INNOVA - Establishing common models of integrated sustainable monitoring, planning, and management of high environmental value areas to control natural resources degradation" Research topic "Lefka Ori, the Greek case study"

The Project objective was to achieve joint management of the environment in the Mediterranean eco-region. By the creation of a consultation table between the relevant Public Administrations (Institutional Network) and the Scientific Institutions (Scientific Network), common Guidelines and an Indicators' Handbook were developed to achieve monitoring, planning and sustainable management in Protected Areas in the Mediterranean eco-region. An innovative web-based platform (INNOVA Platform) was implemented to support the effective management of protected areas and to collect requests and opinions from end-users. The Pilot Project activities, consisting of the implementation of the PASEM (Protected Areas Sustainability Evaluation Monitoring), as well as proposing site-relevant sustainability indicators, were implemented in pilot areas. The results of surveys, management effectiveness evaluation, selected indicators, and best practices were collected in the Case Study Report and disseminated.

FP6 - TRADEAG: Agricultural Trade Agreements:

The ultimate aim of the TRADEAG project was to provide economic analyses to policymakers involved in trade negotiations and agricultural policy design. Specifically, the objectives addressed by the various work packages (WPs) included the delivery of conceptual and empirical tools to:

  • Understand the main drivers towards regionalisation and monitor the evolution of regional integration processes;
  • Assess the degree of openness, trade restrictiveness, and protection of the EU, in comparison to other developed countries;
  • Analyse the problems raised by the articulation of preferential agreements with multilateral negotiations and with future agreements under discussion;
  • Quantify the effect of trade agreements on trade flows and on the agricultural sector of an enlarged Union;
  • Provide objective analysis of the particular issue of trade with developing countries, including non- tariff barriers and tariff escalation;
  • Provide an assessment of the nature of the various 'generations' of the European Union agreements, their depth integration, and their efficiency in reaching trade, welfare and, when relevant, development objectives.

Background

Dr Yiorgos Gadanakis is an experienced analyst, proficient in data management, analysis and interpretation. His research focuses on the analysis of agricultural production systems in terms of technical and economic efficiency incorporating the relationship between the environment and agriculture. His recent work on sustainable intensification and water use efficiency aims to improve the management of farm businesses and to reduce the environmental pressures generated at farm level. In addition, he has been engaged with a range of EU-funded research programmes and has specialised in model development using both quantitative and qualitative analysis to attribute monetary values to certain aspects of sustainability. Previous projects include agricultural policy evaluations with a focus on sustainability of farming systems at a national and EU level.

Publications

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