Dr. Hossein Azadi

Hossein Azadi (°1973, Iran) is a senior researcher at the Geography Department of Ghent University. He holds a PhD in "sustainable rangeland management" using fuzzy modeling. He is familiar with decision support systems and spatial modeling in socio-economic aspects of environmental impact assessment. Earlier, he was also teaching "mixed-method" approach including quantitative and qualitative techniques.

Hossein has broadly been involved in agri-rural and development studies including 36 national and 5 international projects among which he steered 18 projects. Besides, he has published about 60 papers amongst a series of which some have been published in high impact factor journals.

Formerly, as a post-doc fellow, he conducted two projects on "Global Land Grabbing for Food and Biofuels" at Groningen and Leiden Universities, the Netherlands. He was also the coordinator of the Middle East Networks in the Centre for Development Studies at Groningen University. Since 2010, he is elected as the counselor of the Iranian Scientific Society of Agroecology. Besides, he has frequently been consulted by the Iranian agri-rural institutes and was currently interviewed by SciDev.Net.

Holding this background, Hossein currently joined SEG to launch integrated studies on "Food & Land" policies focusing on the mutual impacts of different agricultural food production systems (conventional, organic and GM crops) and land use change/development.

Recent publications

  • Schoonbeek, S., Azadi, H., Mahmoudi, H., Derudder, B., De Maeyer, P., Witlox, F. (In press). Organic agriculture and undernourishment in developing countries: Main potentials and challenges. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. (IF: 4.5)
  • Azadi, H., Schoonbeek, S., Mahmoudi, H., Derudder, B., De Maeyer, P., Witlox, F. (2011). Organic agriculture and sustainable food production system: Main potentials. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 144, 92– 94. (IF: 2.7)
  • Bazuin, S. Azadi, H., Witlox, F. (2011). Application of GM crops in Sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons learned from Green Revolution. Biotechnology Advances, 29, 908–912. (IF: 7.6)
  • Azadi, H., Verheijke, G., Witlox, F. (2011). Pollute first, clean up later? Global and Planetary Change, 78, 77-82. (IF: 3.3)
  • Azadi, H., Ho, P., Hafni, E., Zarafshani, K., Witlox, F. (2011). Multi-stakeholder involvement and urban green space performance. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 54(6), 785-811. (IF: 1.1)
  • Azadi, H., Talsma, N., Ho, P., Zarafshani, K. (2011). GM crops in Ethiopia: A realistic way to increase agricultural performance? Trends in Biotechnology, 29(1), 6-8. (IF: 9.6)
  • Zhao, J.H., Ho, P., Azadi, H. (2011). Benefits of Bt cotton counterbalanced by secondary pests? Perceptions of ecological change in China. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 173, 985-994. (IF: 1.4)
  • Azadi, H., Ho, P., Hasfiati, L. (2010). Agricultural land conversion drivers: A comparison between less developed, developing and developed countries. Land Degradation & Development, 21, 1-9. (IF: 1.3)
  • Azadi, H., Ho, P. (2010). Genetically modified and organic crops in developing countries: A review of options for food security. Biotechnology Advances, 28(1), 160-168. (IF: 7.6)
  • Ho, P., Azadi, H. (2010). Rangeland degradation in North China: Perceptions of pastoralists. Environmental Research, 110(3), 302-307. (IF: 3.5)