The mood of impoverished farmers in an election period can tremendously affect or spoil data collection activities. The situation becomes more complex in view of the covid-19 pandemic which greatly limits interactions among the farmers and the researchers.

On the 19th of November 2021, one of the members of the cooperative research group - Gospel Ayodele Iyioku – participated in the ELLS scientific student conference themed “Green (R)Evolution: From Molecules to Ecosystems.”

In July 2021, the vice-deans of FTA – dr. Jiří Hejkrlík and dr. Jana Mazancová, extended and formalized the cooperation between FTA and The Cooperative University of Kenya in Nairobi (CUK). The start of the collaboration is dated back to 2020 when the head of the Cooperative Research Team

The food system faces the challenge of feeding a growing and increasingly prosperous population while respecting planetary boundaries and addressing multiple societal demands.  In this context, the expectations placed on scientists, including agricultural economists, by policy-makers, research-funding bodies, academic institutions, the private sector and civil society are changing. 

From the 18th of July 2021 and for four weeks, two students from the Cooperative Research group, accompanied by Jana Mazancová and Jiri Hejkrlík, were involved in data collection in Coastal Kenya, specifically in Kilifi county. 

The focus of cooperative research has taken a new dimension. The focus now is on how cooperatives contribute to the other dimensions of sustainability (environmental and social).

Ebenezer Donkor participated and did an oral presentation on his research topic “Economic impact of members’ commitment to rice cooperatives in Western Zambia”. The 2020 ELLS conference was for the first time organised virtually through Zoom on the 20th to 21st November

As part of the objectives of the analysis of the economic performance of small farmers in transition countries, a team of researchers from the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague and the Mongolia University of Life Sciences carried

On the 25th August 2019, the students under cooperative research group with support from the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences visited Zambia. The visit aimed at cooperative research data collection on social and economic aspects of members commitment to agricultural marketing cooperatives in the Western part of Zambia. 

The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) CCR European Research in collaboration with German council for cooperatives organised a three-day conference entitled “Cooperatives and the Transformation of Business and Society” on 21-23 August 2019 Berlin Germany. Participants of the event were mainly scholars, students, representatives of cooperatives, policy makers and other stakeholders.

The Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO) in collaboration with the World Bank Group (Agriculture) organised a three-day conference dubbed “Small farms in transition: How to stimulate inclusive growth?”

On 8th of January 2018, the group of Master’s students from the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences accompanied by Jiří Hejkrlík visited the Cooperative Association of the Czech Republic in Prague.

The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) in collaboration with the Dutch Council for Cooperative organised a three-day European Research Conference dubbed “Cooperatives in a rapidly changing world: innovation in enterprise and community” on 4-6 July 2018 at Wageningen, Netherlands. Participants were mainly students, scholars, representatives of cooperatives, policy makers and other stakeholders

With the main objective of analysing the Economic and Social Performance of Newly Created Farmers’ Groups in the European Union’s Eastern Partnership, a team of five members from the Czech University of Life Sciences 

Cristina Conea presented at the ELLS conference via poster her presentation of the research “What factors influence better market access among collective action of small farmers in Moldova?

From 25th of October 2018 for the period of three weeks the members of the Cooperative Research Group were involved in data collection in Moldova. The target respondents were agricultural cooperatives and individual farmers in the whole country. Cristina Conea, as a main coordinator, was present at data collection in site for the two weeks; for the last week data were collected by two trained consultants from the partner university - State Agrarian University of Moldova in Chisinau (SAUM) and two additional enumerators. In total 205 questionnaires were collected from cooperative members and the control group of non-members.

Our students (Veronika Kristufova and Winnifred Okpo) are collecting data for their thesis. Here are their greetings from Kenya:

Student's field research called "Agri-Cooperatives and Institutions for Rural Development" is still ongoing in Sumy, Ukraine.