Crop biotic stresses (DPG Session) The Board of the German Society Phytomedicine (DPG -Deutschen Phytomedizinischen Gesellschaft) as part of Tropentag, organized an award ceremony to celebrate one of its member with outstanding scientific achievements in the field of Phytomedicine. The 2013 Anton de Bary Medal was presented to Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kranz in recognition for his scientific work in the areas of tropical and subtropical plant pathology and epidemiology of pathogens. The award consists of a medal named Anton de Bary on one side and bears the name of the award winner on the back, and a certificate that contains the focus of the presentation The 2013 Anton de Bary Medal ("http://dpg.phytomedizin.org/de/die-dpg/auszeichnungen-preise/")

... as pointed out in the AVRDC and IWMI session on the last day of Tropentag 2013. Malnutrition and diseases are a “hidden hunger” in this world and to combat this problem an obvious solution is given: Eat more vegetables! Andreas W. Ebert talking about tomatoes

Global warming, peak oil, climate change; GM seeds of the bio-giants BAYER and MONSANTO are ruining our biosphere; 40% of greenhouse gas emissions comes from the industrialized agriculture sector; – how to get from where we are now to an abundant, pleasurable and resilient future? The 65-minute long documentary film “Voices of Transition”gives us a concrete answer to this powerful question. Leigh Court Farm in England

A million shots were taken from the Tropentag cow standing in front of the registration desk within three days. Where is the Tropentag Cow from? It was created by CowParade (www.cowparade.com), the largest public art event. Since 1999, the CowParade event has displayed cow sculptures in different cities, including Chicago (1999), New York City (2000), London (2002), Tokyo (2003), Brussels (2003), Dublin (2003), Prague (2004), Stockholm (2004), Mexico City (2005) and Sao Paulo (2005). The cows are displayed throughout the host cities, its streets, parks, and other public places. A lot of the cows can be seen by the public, free of charge. They were designed by artists from the amateur and unknown to the professional and famous.

"Urban agriculture is only a complementary to the rural agriculture, however it is necessary for food and agriculture literacy" - states Dr. Joe Nasr. In his opinion, Urban Agriculture will remain only as an additional food supplier with its main function of supporting biodiversity of species, rather than be a main food source. He has worked on the topic of Urban Agriculture for over 2 decades and described major challenges and alternatives to the agro-industrial system in his leading presentation of the Oral Presentation Session "Development within the Rural-urban Continuum". more

“Trying out for the Tropentag is an excellent opportunity to get an exposure”, says Brigitte Maass who has been mentoring graduate students and early career scientists throughout her 40 years of scientific career. “I like mentoring and I always make sure that my students gets to submit an abstract for oral or poster presentations before they leave to their home countries”, she added. “The Tropentag is a great opportunity to meet people and to see what scientists are doing, young and old alike – nobody works on long term projects – so it is important to keep and maintain relationships and build new once”, she said. maintaining relationships

The amount of money earned from cultivating vegetables in Kenya, growing peppers in India, producing timber products and farming Pangasius in Vietnam is the common denominator in the session of value chains. Similarly, wealth in Bangladesh determines a person’s willingness to purchase an insurance.

Only 6 posters were presented in the session, and another hand full of people listened to them on early Thursday morning, so that Mr. Fitwi, moderator of the Poster presentation session “Aquaculture, fisheries and fish“, referred to them as the “underdogs” of the Tropentag 2013. However, the wide range of topics presented during the sessions shows that aquacultural research does not need to hide away from the big stages, but actually addresses very urgent topics such as depleting resources and women empowerment.