Germany’s agriculture and food sector is widely regarded as a successful model in many parts of the world. Interest in partner countries is therefore high to benefit from the knowledge and experience available in the German agri-food industry, as well as in German agricultural policy-making.

Through its Bilateral Cooperation Programme, the German Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) is aiming to make this knowledge available to interested stakeholders in partner countries, while strengthening Germany’s bilateral relations. With the help of practice-oriented projects designed for the long-term, partner countries are supported in establishing a more sustainable and productive agriculture and food sector. With the help of the Bilateral Cooperation Programme, partners are enabled to benefit directly from Germany’s experience and knowledge on a diversity of technological, organisational, policy and legal matters concerning the agriculture and food sector. Partner countries also obtain the necessary guidance to modify and adapt parts of this model to their own policy and legal framework, as well as to their agriculture and food industries.

The BMEL’s bilateral cooperation projects are usually designed either in the form of agricultural dialogue projects, practical demonstration and training projects, or alternatively as cooperation projects with industry associations. Several countries are currently being targeted by this programme. At the moment, cooperation is particularly intensive with China, Ukraine and Ethiopia. Other target countries include Russia, Kazakhstan, India and Morocco.

Due to our ample expertise in project assessment and evaluation techniques, HFFA Research has been contracted on a recurring basis to carry out external evaluations of the BMEL’s bilateral cooperation projects, including recommendations for the design, planning and implementation of potential follow-up projects. In addition, we have recently been contracted to contribute to the Programme’s climate component analyzing the effects of climate change on agricultural production. So far, our team has successfully evaluated the BMEL’s bilateral cooperation projects in China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Russia.

For more detailed information on this project, please contact us.