At the 2026 Annual Meeting of the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA), held in Kansas City from July 26 to 28, more than a dozen faculty members and students from the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Renmin University of China (RUC) presented research spanning rural development, agricultural trade, food safety and resource economics. Graduate students made up the majority of the delegation, while undergraduates also took to the international stage.

The presentations reflected a broader effort at RUC to bring research questions rooted in China’s experience into global academic dialogue. In August, the university formally introduced the concept of “Sannongology” in Ireland, a distinctive academic concept centered on agriculture, rural development and farmers in the context of China’s modernization. At AAEA, young RUC researchers showed how questions emerging from China’s rural transformation can also inform broader global concerns.

For doctoral student Tang Yao, the meeting marked her first AAEA presentation. Her research examines China’s relocation-based poverty alleviation policy. Rather than stopping at whether families were successfully resettled, Tang asks what happens afterward. As households shift from firewood and coal to gas and electricity, energy spending rises. Her study explores whether this new energy burden remains sustainable after relocation, adding another dimension to research on long-term poverty reduction.

Other students connect China’s policy experience with global development challenges. Doctoral student Miao Yiyuan examines how price policies reshape protein consumption among urban and rural residents, linking dietary transition with carbon-reduction goals. Chen Yuanyuan studies a policy in China that promotes the recycling of livestock manure. Using a county-level pilot program as a quasi-natural experiment and combining it with high-resolution hydrological data, her research finds that pollution-control gains in one locality may be accompanied by greater pressure downstream — a challenge common to watershed governance worldwide.

RUC undergraduates were also among the presenters. Gu Wenhao examined barriers to the adoption of crop-protection drones in China, while Bao Jiaren studied the causal relationship between air pollution and crime using California wildfires as an instrumental variable. Bao credited RUC’s student research program and repeated mock presentations with preparing him for the conference.

Mentorship also featured prominently in the students’ research journeys. Doctoral student Zhang Rongcun presented an experimental economics study asking whether interventions aimed at reducing children’s consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages work better when directed at children or their caregivers. The question first emerged from a classroom discussion led by Associate Professor Zhang Man. At the same AAEA session, Zhang presented a related study on peer influence and nudging in children’s beverage choices, turning classroom inquiry into a broader research agenda. 

Master’s student Xu Chenguang delivered three lightning-session presentations on cognitive frictions in green-technology adoption, the effect of delayed subsidies on technology diffusion, and algorithmic trading in China’s agricultural futures markets. For Xu, training in artificial intelligence, machine learning, causal inference and structural models has provided the methodological tools needed to address questions emerging from China’s rapidly changing agricultural economy. 

The meeting also brought recognition. Doctoral student Guo Yifeng and his co-authors received the AAEA China Section 2026 Best Paper Award for Quantifying the Water Quality Impacts of Cropland Farming in China: A Satellite Data Approach. Using satellite data, the study estimates the causal effects of cropland coverage on harmful algal blooms and provides empirical evidence on the effects of China’s policy to achieve zero growth in chemical fertilizer use, introduced in 2015. The research contributes to a broader question long studied by the team: how agricultural development can be better balanced with environmental protection.

Other RUC researchers also brought a wide range of perspectives to the meeting. Guo Xinqi examined how standards adoption reshapes a country’s position in global agricultural trade networks, Zhang Yifan assessed the long-term potential of China’s forest carbon sinks, and Zhou Yimeng studied how road expansion affects forest cover in Brazil. Together, their work broadened the discussion from China’s agricultural and rural development to global development and international comparison.

RUC alumna Jin Yanhong, a professor at Rutgers University who traveled from New Jersey to attend the meeting, noted the strong RUC presence at this year’s meeting and the breadth of the research presented by its students.

Behind each presentation were rounds of seminars, fieldwork, revisions and debate. From undergraduate research programs to doctoral fieldwork, the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development gives students hands-on training in literature review, data analysis and research design, while encouraging them to develop independent questions and communicate their findings in international academic settings. China’s poverty alleviation, rural revitalization and ecological transition provide a rich empirical foundation for this work, while rigorous methods help students turn those experiences into research that can engage global audiences.

“We used to spend more time learning and catching up,” said Assistant Professor Wang Kaiwen, who led the group to the meeting. “Now, the questions, settings and data emerging from China’s agricultural economy are themselves contributing new knowledge and momentum to global scholarship.”

From Beijing’s classrooms and China’s rural field sites to the conference rooms of Kansas City, these young researchers are learning to turn insights from China’s agricultural and rural development into research that contributes to international scholarship. Their work also reflects a broader ambition at RUC: to build knowledge rooted in China’s experience while contributing new evidence and perspectives to global academic discussions.