Rico Ihle

Dr. Rico Ihle is an Associate Professor at Wageningen University's Agricultural Economics and Rural Policy Group, affiliated with the Wageningen School of Social Sciences (WASS). He holds a PhD from Georg-August-Universität Göttingen and is also an Adjunct Professor at Universitas Padjadjaran in Indonesia. His research focuses on achieving SDG2 (Zero Hunger), food system sustainability, and resilience in regions like the EU, Indonesia, and the Middle East. He teaches courses on econometrics, agricultural policy, and EU food systems, and has organized study tours to Slovakia, Morocco, Hungary, and Munich. He supervises 5 PhD students and advises numerous BSc/MSc students.

Education & Career:

• PhD in Agricultural Economics, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (Germany)
• Adjunct Professor at Universitas Padjadjaran (Indonesia)
• Elected Secretary General of the International Network for MBA Agribusiness and Commerce (AgriMBA) in 2024

Research Interests:

• Economic analysis of agricultural markets and food prices
• Effects of political conflict on food systems
• EU agricultural policy and sustainability transitions
• Food security and resilience in developing regions
• Quantitative methods including time-series econometrics

Recent Work: His 2025 publications explore food waste reduction in school canteens and household resilience in West Africa. He also leads projects like ClimAgri4Ukraine for post-war agricultural recovery. He has co-authored over 100 conference contributions and serves as an associate editor for Food Security.

Grants & Networks:

• Principal investigator for the Genetically Modified Food in Dutch Grocery Shelves project (COGEM)
• Member of the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium (IATRC)
• Co-organizer of webinars on global food markets and Ukraine's agrarian policies

Labs/Teams: Leads Work Package 4 of the e-AgriMBA project and collaborates with institutions like the Kyiv School of Economics and OECD.