Dr. Sebastian Marchand, an economist at Clermont-Auvergne University, France, held his third seminar entitled "Environmentally-Friendly Technology and Rural Development " at the IEF. Teachers from the IEF and other institutes participated in the seminar.
Sebastian first emphasized three motivations for his research. The first is about food security; the second is to improve the quality of life in rural areas; the third is to solve some of the environmental problems. Sebastian proposed to establish a sustainable, environmentally friendly and centralized agricultural system. Next, Sebastian put forward the concept of EFP-T (Environment-Friendly Technology), including land resource management, agricultural system improvement, strategies for soil, water and plant management and waste management derived from agricultural products. The EFP-T has applications in five different forms of agriculture, i.e., traditional agriculture, ranch-type operations, modern organic farming, precision agriculture and rice intensification. This shows that EFP-T has a wide range of uses and far-reaching implications in the fields of agricultural economics. Finally, Sebastian shared with the audients his research projects to be conducted simultaneously in Argentina, Brazil and China in August this year with the aim to understand the determinants of EFP-T adoption and its impact on the agricultural environment. The seminar lasted an hour and a half. After the seminar, teachers of the IEF had a pleasant discussion with Sebastian.
