Pigs won’t drive a car anytime soon, around 30 people learned, when listening to the presentations “Nutrition of monogastric animals”.

The oral presentations during the Wednesday morning session represented the huge variety of aspects under the umbrella of ‘Intensive Livestock systems and services’, but stood in keen competition with time constraints due to a pushed forward lunch break.

GIZ projects to promote urban agriculture On Wednesday morning, representatives from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH shared their experience on rural development projects in Africa.

The session started of with an awakening keynote speech from FIAN President Dr. Flavio Luiz Schieck Valente. He asked researchers to use science to influence politics, because politicians have an impact on people’s lives. His presentation did not focus on the continuum as such, but rather on what actually happens to the people in the continuum?

A team of scientists have added activated charcoal to goats' feed, utilizing the charcoal-laden faeces in attempts to decrease the amount of leaching of nitrogen and carbon in poor performing sandy soils. The results were mostly positive. But what is activated charcoal, why are they feeding it to goats, and how might it benefit soil fertility? (read more)

… they all played an important role in the session on vegetable production within the rural-urban continuum, which not only offered insights into a lot of plant varieties, but also into a wide variety of topics from web based collaborative research between Thailand and Germany, via cauliflower cultivation in Dhaka to the cultivation of early Bambara groundnut for urban markets in Limpopo Province (South Africa).

In some of the most marginal areas of the world where arable farming is not practical, people cope and are able to survive through the raising of animals. Usually, these systems are highly mobile, meaning the livestock keeper must follow or drive their animals to different pastures and rangelands. Often, such systems are neglected or looked at as backwards, traditional or somehow out-of-style. But this year's Tropentag held a full session devoted exclusively to oral presentations on research in extensive livestock production. Here are a couple results from the session... (read more)

YPARD is an international movement by Young Professionals FOR Young Professionals, to express their ideas and realize their full potential towards a dynamic Agricultural Research for Development. Register for free! Key Actions of YPARD ⇒ Building a strong network ⇒ Giving voice to youth ⇒ Capacity building and information sharing ⇒ Promoting agriculture among young people How you can contribute ⇒ Share your experiences ⇒ Give your opinion ⇒ Raise youth issues in strategic debates and discussions For more Information, meet Martina Graf, YPARD Europe representative now and only until Thursday 11:00am in the exhibition hall at the Tropentag!