Prof. Dr. Anthony Whitbread (Göttingen) & Prof. Dr. Andreas Bürkert (Kassel-Witzenhausen): Organizing Committee 2012 It is not by random thought that the selected theme of the Tropentag conference this year is “Resilience of agricultural systems against crisis”, rather it seems to be a well thought out design that led to this topic, stemming back to the Tropentag 2011. In 2011 the conference was dubbed "Development on the Margin", with discussions focussing on crucial topics like; food security, natural resource management and rural development in the (Sub-)Tropics. In his welcome address, Prof. Dr. Anthony Whitbread defines resilience as “the capacity of a system to absorb a shock and continue to function in the same way” as previously defined by Walker 2012. He further recalls that resilience is a concept that has its roots in ecological theory, with aspects applicable to the management of agricultural and farming systems. Highlights of the stresses and shocks of concern from the address with regard to agriculture in the tropics include; low soil fertility, drought stress, poor water quality, poor infrastructure, high debt and equity ratio, drought, famine and other aspects like food and war crises. In order to make agricultural systems more resilient to these stresses and crises, Prof. Whitbread emphasizes on the importance of systems knowledge (prediction of stresses) and the capacity building as the key to improve our understanding of the agricultural systems and provide sustainable solutions towards resolving the crises. Climate change considerations, a carbon constrained future and socio economic changes in age, urbanization and gender are challenges to solutions that have to be considered. A way forward is needed and according to Prof. Whitebread, we have two options at the table, of either adaptational or transformational changes. There has been a lot of debates and heated discussion on transformational changes leaving the option of the adaptional changes as it is gaining the most acceptance in the wider community. Tropentag 2012 covers a wide range of topical issues concerning; Markets; Community watershed region; Farm household and Livelihood; Field, Flock and Forest; and Microbe-Plant with discussions across different scales from; Biological, Social, to Economic. His challenge to the multidisciplinary gathering at the Tropentag is to integrate and communicate the complex knowledge and help to devise systems of management and policies across scales and disciplines. This generates a need for new tools and approaches with regard to methodologies, communication and extension strategies distributing the appropriate message to Project and research team design as well as Funding strategies (long term, consortium, fund partners, applied research). In his closing remarks, he called upon the Montpellier panel report 2012 on “Growth with Resilience: Opportunities in African Agriculture” that states “Development at scale, is a theme that crosscuts the growth with resilience agenda. Achieving resilient and transformational agricultural growth means going beyond small islands of success.” Prof. Whitbread further acknowledge the presence of the leading scientists presenting keynote speeches and highlighted that 100 + oral presentation in 19 sessions, together with 360 poster presentations and set for this conference. He also pointed out a special session by International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in commemoration of its 45th anniversary. He expressed his gratitude to the organizers, speakers and funding bodies that have made the Tropentag 2012 conference possible. These remarks marked the start of Tropentag 2012 "Resilience in agricultural systems against crises"