Ayako’s current interest lies in understanding how value chain development affects intensification of livestock production and trade system and related impacts on health of both animals and humans. She investigates how perceptions of risks influence supply chain actors’ social and economic behaviors and bottom-up innovations that contribute to public health. Moreover, she is interested in understanding what interventions can mitigate negative effects of value chain development as well as the methods to evaluate the impacts of such interventions.

She has worked mostly in South and Southeast Asia as well as Latin America, and speaks Japanese, English, Spanish and German. This includes work on the Myanmar Pig Partnership, an interdisciplinary research project exploring the disease risk thought to be accompanying changing pig production and consumption patterns in Myanmar.

Prior to working at IDS, she worked at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Vietnam and Lao PDR, conducting an economic impact assessment of farm extension and breeding research on cassava. Throughout her career, she has acquired both quantitative (e.g. econometrics) and qualitative research skills.

Further information on Ayako is available on her institutional profile.

Share