Most of you have noticed that this year's Tropentag is being held in Zurich. Therefore, there was a Swiss Session today, giving Swiss organizations from the field of agricultural and rural development like the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation or the Swiss College of Agriculture an opportunity to present their work. One special guest of the Session was a Swiss institution far older than the other organizations that many people do not relate to issues of development at the first glance: Nestlé. The world's largest food company was represented by Hans Jöhr, Corporate Head of Agriculture of Nestlé. Mr. Jöhr delivered an adress on “effective contribution to ensure supply of safe, quality assured and affordable products to consumers”, in short, Nestlé's contribution to global food supplies.

Although early in the morning, the headlines attracted many participants. Padruot Fried from the Swiss Forum for international Agricultural Research (SFIAR) gently led trough the headlines: Public support from SDC Yves Guinand from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) highlighted the contribution from the Swiss Confederation with respect to food security. Swiss Research Institutions Prof. Bernard Lehmann, dean of the department of Food- and Agriculture (D-AGRL) at ETH Zurich, Fritz Schneider from the Swiss college of Agriculture (SHL), Markus Giger from the Centre of Development and environment of University of Berne (CDE) and the National Centre of Competence in Research North-South (NCCR North-South) and Urs Niggli from the Swiss research institution for organic agriculture (FiBL) then outlined the available resources and the strategies in addressing the particular research interests respectively. Private Initiatives Hans Jöhr from the Nestlé Company was glad to present a sample of different sustainable agriculture initiatives from different emerging countries. SFIAR award ceremony

Albert Engel, from GTZ told us his opinion about the tropentag. He considers Tropentag as an avenue to look up broad spectrum of research and to link up to the people who are doing the research. Accoding to his opinion it is an important event to identify the bottlenecks, information and research need and an opportunity to get in contact with people who are interested in development cooperation. Watch his inspiring comment about the student reporter, an innovation of the Tropentag 2010

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.

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

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.