Tropentag 2019 - Student blog - Marginal people

“Soil has to be the engine of economic development, use them, improve them and restore them”: Prof. Rattan Lal grants interview

De-Registered User — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:44:28 +0000

A bit of background information about Prof. Lal Prof. Rattan Lal is a professor of Soil Science in the School of Environment and Natural Resources at the Ohio State University, USA. He has been involved in several activities both in research and teaching. He is a member of the U.S National Committee on Soil Science of the National Academy of Sciences (1998-2002) and (2007-to date). He is the lead author of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. Read more about him at http://senr.osu.edu/facview.asp?id=382 Student reporter : What would be your take home message to someone who is not present here at the Tropentag 2011 conference? Prof. Lal : Several things depend on soil such as food security, water quality, climate change, production and biodiversity. Many ecosystem services which depend on soil are jeopardized because of poor soil management. Taking soils for granted has been the cause of many serious problems and we should avoid it. Student reporter : How can we achieve good production on marginal soils?

Agriculture and crashing jumbo jets - the first day of Tropentag

De-Registered User — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:37:46 +0000

Looking back on the first day of Tropentag 2011 A ‘hub of discussion’, ‘the most important international conference for the development oriented scientific community’ or just a networking event… with more than 1000 participants from all over the world Tropentag is everything but boring. Looking back on the first day. ‘There are a billion people that are currently hungry. We’ve never had that number of hungry-stricken in the world before. If we’re going to feed the world by 2050 we need to increase food production by something as 70 to 100 percent. The food price spikes are going to recur and food prices will stay high.’ This statement of Sir Gordon Conway (Imperial College) during the plenary speeches on the first day of the Tropentag, will be leading during the whole conference in Bonn. These are the facts. How can research make a contribution to solve this problem? Questions As Claudia Mueller (University of Bonn) argued in the opening session of the Tropentag, research on ‘development of the margin’ is needed and should be a guiding principle for all researchers. ‘We will only be successful if we manage to improve the hunger situation for the marginalized in development.’ She raised questions such as how to balance development in favorable and marginal environments? Should marginalized people and communities become key players in an increasingly globalized resource use, and if so, how?

The illusion of marginality

De-Registered User — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:54:13 +0000

Marginal people? No creature is marginal to its own existence. Marginalisation is just a concept incorporated to our “social taxonomy” according to Prof. Paul Richards. Prof. Paul Richards (Technology and Agrarian Development) from the Wageningen University, argues that in ecology and evolutionary there is no such thing as “marginal people.” Everything has its own place. He argues that the creation of “marginal people” is just a reflection of the human need to classify its environment. It is also a reflection of our capacity to produce insidious harm based on our lack of trust on the others ("I trust myself more than I trust others, I can blame other more than I blame myself"). Prof. Richards argues that in early medieval times most social misfortunes were attributed to the unfitness of the rulers (they were accused for either not being able to do their work or to follow God’s desires), and that rulers were often “marginalised” from common society. This started to change during the later medieval period (the beginning of the market economy), when the blame shifted from elites to certain minorities.

Nobel Prize winner, Prof. Rattan Lal speaks on marginal soils

De-Registered User — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 16:20:05 +0000

Agriculture is a major contributor to global carbon dioxide emission according to Prof. Rattan Lal, distinguished professor at the Ohio State University, USA who presented on marginal soils at Tropentag 2011 . He defined marginal soils as “soils of poor quality and characterized by low ecosystem functions and services”. He also underscored the linkages between soils and the ecosystem and spoke about the importance of soil for humanity. He said that when soils get marginalized, people also get marginalized and that when farming occurs, nutrients are removed and these nutrients must be replaced one way or another, otherwise soils then get marginalized. According to him, if the millennium development goals would be achieved, then soils should be taken more seriously and properly protected. Soil degradation Land is needed for human settlement especially with population growth and urbanization, and Prof. Lal estimates that up to about 400, 000 ha of land is needed per year for one million people which means that about 3 million ha is converted to areas of human habitation each year. Another cause of soil degradation he mentioned is the use of top soil for brick/block making as well as use of soil for sale. He stated that, “soils can provide for our needs but not our greed”.

Welcome address

De-Registered User — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 11:40:15 +0000

Over 500 participants attended the welcome address of Tropentag. According to Prof. Mathias Becker, Chairman of organizing committee, the topic of Development on the Margin was chosen as a "top priority topic" aimed at helping to achieve the Millenium Development Goals. To be updated...

Update of Tropentag 2011

De-Registered User — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:27:35 +0000

Tropentag is just two hours away now. All student reporters are ready to bring interesting updates as the conference progresses on the following events: At 13:00 is the welcome address by Prof. Dr. Christa E. Muller, Prorector, University of Bonn At 13:30 Gordon Conway from Imperial College London speaks on 'the double green revolution' At 14:00, Rattan Lal from the Ohio State University, USA, speaks on marginal soils. At 14:30 comes a talk on marginal people: "Surplus Youth" in the Global Taxonomy of Insidious Harm by Paul Richards from Wageningen University and Research Centre, The Netherlands Also, there is a guided poster session at 17:00 and a social gathering at 18:30 to wrap up the day's events.

President of ATSAF introduces controversial issues at Tropentag

De-Registered User — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 14:07:29 +0000

With only one day to go, Professor Dr Asch, president of ATSAF, is looking forward to the event that can be seen as a ‘hub of discussion’. ‘We can cause shifting paradigms’. The German based organization ATSAF, the Council for Tropical and Subtropical Agricultural Research, is organizing the Tropentag this year and combines the expertise of development oriented agriculture research in the tropics and subtropics. With ‘people on the margin’ as a central theme of the Tropentag 2011, there are a lot of scientific issues that will stir up the debate and may be controversial. Asch: ‘I’m pretty sure that we will have a lot of interesting keynotes and discussions at the conference. How to empower people who are marginalized through globalization, climate change, food insecurity and life style, such as the nomadic ethnical groups? This will be an important discussion point.’ Food insecurity But there is more, according to Asch. ‘The debate about bio energy versus food will be controversial. Furthermore, there is a whole discussion going on about what the meaning is of food insecurity. Do we have to go to local smallholder decentralized systems or do we have to emphasis large production units? What are the benefits and constraints?’