The SFIAR network, the Swiss Forum of International Agricultural Research, is a platform, which was launched at the ministerial at the ministerial conference on international agricultural research in Lucerne in 1995. In the context of the Swiss Session at the Tropentag 2010, the SFIAR gave an award for outstanding scientific work. The award carries a value of Sfr 5000.- The winner of this year was Dr. Lian Pin Koh. He graduated from the National University of Singapore with degrees in Bachelor and Master of Science, and from Princeton University with a Doctorate in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Currently he is a Senior Research Fellow at ETH Zurich. Lian Pin's main interests lie in basic and applied ecology, as well as environmental science and policy.

Yesterday, Prof. Dr. Michael Kreuzer of North-South Center opened Tropentag 2010 with a speech “About World Food System” together with 1,228 registrants from 83 countries. This was immediately followed by interesting and thought provoking speeches by experts such as Christian Nelleman from UNEP entitled “Ensuring food security while safeguarding the environment” where he said, “while agriculture surely has impacts on the environment, but more important to understand is how the environment provides the platform for food production”. Moreover, Jimmy Smith of World Bank Institute delivered his speech entitled “The role of livestock for the world food system” indicating that “problem is the availability and accessibility of those foods in developing countries as feeding people does not necessarily nourishing them”. Right after the break, Foundation Fiat Panis awarded 3 recent graduates with Hans H. Ruthernberg-Graduate-Award together with 3 research professionals with Josef G. Knoll-European Science-Award as they managed to produce excellent scientific work meant to contribute to the reduction of hunger in developing countries. The keynote programme was then continued by Paul Collier of Oxford University with his speech entitled “How to feed the bottom billion?” which actually inciting an out-of-comfort-zone discussion pushing for a more pragmatic approach in solving the big question, as his title proposed.

The first poster session of Tropentag 2010 took place on Tueasday afternoon.

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.