In this period of rapid change in land use, hunger is still a problem. In order to fight hunger, the promotion of ecological resiliency is needed. This is the main message Dr. Deborah Bossio, holding a PhD in Soil Science from the University of California, USA and working at the International Center for International Agriculture (CIAT), conveyed in today's second plenary speech. Dr. Deborah Bossio At the beginning of her speech, Dr. Bossio speaks to the audience about food issues such as chronicle hunger and yield gaps. She points out that the population density is high in areas of quality crop land, showing maps from the African continent found on the website of the Harvestchoice. She also highlights that soils and land use are central to planetary boundaries (climate change, chemical pollution, phosphorus cycle, nitrogen cycle, etc). Land use changes...some facts!

“The choice of a research topic and the quality of the work for an MSc thesis are the main reasons why I was given the Hans H. Ruthenberg Award for Best Graduate Thesis in 2012”, says Reginald. Reginald from Ghana, has been awarded the prize for his research entitled “Contribution of Home Gardens to Household Income Generation in Burkina Faso (A Case Study of Bieha District). “Working with smallholder farmers in one of the most food insecure countries in the world like Burkina Faso has caught the attention of the award giving body”, he added. “I think employing both qualitative and quantitative research is necessary in order to capture the complex problems in the field”, he continued. In his opinion, the ability to analyze the data properly, answer the research questions and adequately discuss the findings of the research convinced his supervisors to give him this mark of 1.3 which was a minimum criteria for the award. Now, Reginald is a PhD candidate in Bonn, working on Range land ecology in West Africa on the WASCAL project (www.wascal.org). Photo with Reginald Guuroh (right) Find the interview of the other awardees: Athena Birkenberg http://blog.tropentag.de/node/245 Lilli Scheiterle http://blog.tropentag.de/node/244

This is the second time I am taking part in Tropentag it offers a great avenue for networking with professionals in different fields of research. I never miss the keynote sessions at Tropentag because I get to hear from senior academicians on various topics. I enjoy reading the news posted on the blog of Tropentag as well. Each year I find young and enthusiastic researchers registering and making presentations at the conference, this I find very encouraging. The presence of organisation such as GIZ at Tropentag offers me the chance to interact with them for possible research collaboration and job opportunities. Through Tropentag I have been able to link up with professionals in Geography and have together come out with a proposal for a PhD research. Last year I was a student reporter at the Tropentag at Bonn, this year I am a PhD student registered at the University of Bonn. This can only happen at a conference like Tropentag. I was appointed as a Tropentag student reporter last year where I received training in online journalism. I can now post research findings on a blog in a way to catch the attention of internet users.

"Being a student reporter teaches you how to bring across information throughout a lift ride." Senior student reporter Minette Flora Mendoza De Asis from the Philippines talks about her experiences being a student reporter and shares some thoughts about the Tropentag in general. Minette, why would you recommend the Tropentag? Because it's a venue for young scientists to present their research and offers a platform to get in touch with other scientists. It also presents the recent debates and depicts the challenges we currently face in agriculture.

The preparatory workshop for Student Reporters has ended. We now have 12 motivated students waiting to serve YOU all the news, fun and excitement that this year's Tropentag presents.

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…that combines many different subjects and people from around the world?

The same question was asked three years ago by the organisers of the Tropentag, a conference dealing with international research on food security, natural resource management and rural development.

...An idea arises...

Their solution created the concept of the student reporters. Sponsored by the ATSAF, student reporters accompany the different presentations and give live comments and description of what is happening, focusing on different thematic subjects. By doing so, people not able to join the fun get the option to experience a bit of the exotic atmosphere spreading at the Tropentag. Also the students learn a lot about the journalistic skills and the transmission of information over social media.

One person in charge of the preparation, administration and project management throughout the start of the conference is Angela Schaffert. In between of her studies on agriculture in the tropics and her moving to Ethiopia, she is now responsible for all the small and bigger challenges arising at the beginning of the conference. Having also to care for the well-being of the respective student, she exactly knows what a student reporter has to face.

...Being a student reporter - a demanding task...

The oral presentations for this session were moderated by Dr. Regina Birner from the University of Hohenheim who introduced the speakers. The first presentation was given by Kewin Bach Friis Kamelarczyk and he spoke about Indigenous and scientific knowledge. His research was focussed on local verses scientific knowledge about local forest change dynamics in the Zambian copperbelt. According to the speaker, both local knowledge and scientific findings should be integrated because they can not really be separated if success is to be achieved practically. He noted that the Zambian forest policy promotes the use of different kinds of knowledge in the management and use of forests. His research found that scientific knowledge is mostly mixed with other types of knowledge without giving actual source of information and that local people rely on nararatives which are mostly subjective perceptions based on experience and observations in the past. In most cases, he observed that these local ideas have not been documented.

Agroforestry has the potential to provide numerous benefits including; maintenance of soil fertility, reduction of soil erosion, conservation of water, carbon capture, biodiversity conservation, poverty reduction and contribution to food security - this is according to Mr. Martin Juvanov of GIZ. He was speaking during the GIZ session at Tropentag 2011 on the topic “agricultural research for development of sustainable land use based on agroforestry systems in semi arid areas in Bolivia”. He started by explaining that land degradation and impact of climate change is a major challenge in Bolivia. He also referred to more frequent and more intense natural desasters like water scacity, drought in semi-arid regions, increase of hailstorms, flush floods, lanslides in highlands, increasing food insecurity, higher temperatures, and shorter growing season for farmers as major indicators of climate change impacts in Bolivia. Technical and structural challenge Mr. Juvanov also discussed some technical and structural challenges facing people in Bolivia as; 1. Non-sustainble use of natural resources 2. Reduction of productivity 3. Increasing of poverty among people 4. Insufficient exchange/flow of information and knowledge and 5. Inssuficient intersectional cordination Set up of GIZ technical cooperation in Bolivia He gave an overview of the work and involvment of GIZ in Bolivia citing their major roles as; 1. Implementation of national sector programmes