Frédéric Lançon is the Scientific Director of the Value Chain for Development Project funded by the Directorate General for International Partnership of the European Commission. He is an economist seconded by the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development CIRAD. He carries out research on agricultural value chain and markets in Africa, Asia and the Middle East focusing on local value chain competitiveness within the globalization of food systems. He was seconded to the CGIAR AfricaRice Centre as a policy economist from 1999 to 2003 working on African rice market trends and transformation. Since then, he has expanded his research scope on rice market in Asia and at the global scale. He has also been involved in project dealing with logistical and transport issue, food retailing, family farm empowerment, rural-urban linkage and food system assessment.