Watch the provocative statements of Prof Paul Collier, who is of the opinion that agricultural scientists are more attached to emotions than to the evidences. He adviced that young professionals should look for evidences but not to attach to the prejudices that contemporary science parctices promulgate. Do you agree or disagree? watch and read summary of his presentation and comment. Famous Prof. Paul Collier was given the floor for the third key speech at Tropentag 2010 „How to feed the bottom billion?“ Being professor of economics and director of the Centre for the Study of African Economics at Oxford University, his speech touched the audience emotionally. Paul Collier challenged and was challenged himself by the critical questions and comments of the audience which triggered many spontanous applause. Paul Collier, Centre for the Study of Africal Economies, Oxford University

In this video keynote speaker Christian Nellemann encourages students participating in the Tropentag to make a difference.

Dr. Andrea Fadani of Foundation fiat panis opens the award ceremonies for winners of Hans H. Ruthernberg-Graduate-Award and Josef G. Knoll-European Science-Award which were awarded to excellent scientific work contributing to the reduction of hunger in developing countries. There were a total of six people to receive awards particularly three will receive the H.H. Ruthernberg-Graduate-Award while another three will receive the J.G. Knoll-European Science-Award. Recipients of H. H. Ruthernberg-Graduate-Award were awarded namely, Ms. Giulia Secondini from Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Ms. Soo Mee Baumann from University of Hohenheim, and Ms. Johanna Jacobi from University of Freiburg. They were identified by three jury namely, Prof. Dr. Tilman Brück of Deutsche Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Grote of University of Hannover, and Prof. Dr. Joachim Sauberborn from University of Hohenheim. Ms. Jacobi managed to present her thesis while Ms. Secondini and Ms. Baumann wasn´t able to attend but was represented by their respective master thesis advisors.

Were you interested in the keynote from the provocative Paul Collier? View his TED talk on his book "The Bottom Billion"

Challenges in feeding the world is not only an issue of production but also an issue of demand, said Christian Nellemann from the United Nations Environment Programme GRID Arendal today at the Tropentag Conference in Zürich. He stated later on that while agriculture surely has impacts on the environment, but more important to understand is how the environment provides the platform for food production. Land degradation and loss of ecosystems services will cost 5-25% of food production by 2050. Some of the causes are considered to derive from uses of pesticides, nitrogen, and phosphate fertilizers which have increased since 1961-1999. Furthermore, the irrigated land today has doubled. Water is also a huge deal of an issue. From the water that we consumed, 75% of it goes to food production. More interesting to realize is that wastewater pollution from ineffective irrigation systems require more water and result in greater run-off, in which we loose 50-70% of N and P.

Jimmy Smith, a lead economist from the World Bank Institute is working in Poverty Reduction and Economic Management in Africa. At the Tropentag conference in Zurich, he was talking about the role of livestock for the world food system. What was very important to the speaker, was the definition of food security. According to him, food security exists, when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Since lifestyles have changed during the past decades in developed countries as well as in developing countries, there is a enormous gain in consumption of different foods like milk, meat or crop. A problem is the availability and accessibility of those foods in developing countries. As feeding people does not nourish them, it is important to increase the accessibility of markets, so those people who are directly or indirectly depending on livestock for their livelihoods are able to nourish themselves. There are different opportunities and challenges that must be faced, like the discounting of domestic markets, different types of emissions that are caused by agriculture or the human-animal health, which, according to Jimmy Smith, should be linked to the so called "one health".

Michael Kreuzer, Professor for Animal Nutrition at the ETH Zurich and Vice-President of the North-South Centre, delivered the opening speech “About the World Food System” of this year's Tropentag. Being held for the first time outside Germany, the Tropentag just beat the records: There are 1.228 registrations from a total of 83 countries, more than 1.100 abstracts were submitted, of which 522 were accepted for presentation, and there will be 130 oral presentations and almost 400 poster presentations. Thus, it promises to be a very diverse, multi-faceted and interesting conference! The World Food System is a major area of research of the North South Centre of the ETH Zurich. Founded in 2007 from its predecessor, the Centre of International Agriculture (ZIL), the North South Centre brings together various academic disciplines, ranging from agricultural sciences and information technology, to environmental studies and social sciences, thus offering an interdisciplinary approach for analyzing the World Food System.

During the Tropentag conference there will be 12 active student reporters running around, blogging, tweeting and taking pictures and video. They will introduce themselves to you below. Do not hesitate to approach them about interesting topics or if you want to share your thoughts or give feedback about the conference! We would also like to encourage you to comment on our blogs, tweets and facebook posts. If you like you can join the twitter conversation as well: just add #tropentag to your tweet!