Sustainable Agricultural Development: Challenges and Approaches in Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Countries

Michel Petit is an Agriculturalist (Ingénieur Agronome, Paris) and Economist (PhD Michigan State University), He is now associated with the Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen in Montpellier (France). He acted as researcher and professor at several Institutes and was also Director of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department of the World Bank (1988-1994), where he subsequently created and led a special unit supporting agricultural research.

Etienne Montaigne is professor of rural economics and agribusiness in Montpellier SupAgro. He is also the Dean of the JUR – Joint Unit of research MOISA - Markets, Organizations, Institutions and Strategies of Actors, which includes 110 people depending on four administrative supervision organizations: INRA, Montpellier SupAgro, CIRAD and CIHEAM- IAMM. Dr Etienne Montaigne has been a professor of Agro-food Economics for thirty years. He is specialized in market chain analysis, economics of technological change and innovation, and Agricultural and food policies.

Fatima el Hadad-Gauthier is a researcher and scientific administrator at the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Montpellier (CIHEAM-MAI Montpellier). She holds a PhD in Agro-Food Economics from Montpellier-I University (France) and she has been involved in courses, research and cooperation activities dealing with the agro-food supply chain in the Mediterranean countries, agricultural policies and Euro-Mediterranean trade agreement negotiations.

Jose Maria Alvarez Coque is Professor of Agricultural Economics at the Universidad Politècnica de València-UPV. He is currently chairing the Research Group on International Economics and Development, a research unit dealing with international agricultural issues.

Konstadinos Mattas is a Professor of Agricultural Policy at the Department of Agricultural Economics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. He has published in more than 100 international refereed journals, incollective volumes and proceedings, and he acts as managing editor of the international scientific journal "Agricultural Economics Review" and is a member of the Editorial Board of several international scientific journals.

Samir Mili is Senior Researcher and Head of the Agri-Food Economics Research Group at the Centre for Human and Social Sciences of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). He has extensive experience in academic and applied research work on economic and policy analysis related to agriculture and the food chain with particular emphasis on Mediterranean products.