Five young scientists in the Tropentag 2012’s oral presentation on animal breeding and health focused their empirical research in East Africa. On animal breeding and genetic resources Samuel Mbuku identified management strategies for small ruminants among pastoralists in Semi-Arid Kenya in order to optimize and expand the existing community based breeding programs in the country. Similarly in Kenya, T.O Okeno proposed an alternative breeding program of indigenous chicken that is more economically viable for smallholder chicken breeders. Moreover, Charles Moses Lyimo assessed the genetic diversity of five Tanzanian chicken populations and traced their history. On animal health and veterinary services Anne Fischer traced the origin of “Mycoplasma mycoides cluster”, a pathogen or parasite that attacks and causes diseases to goats, sheep and cattle particularly in East Africa. She argued that a comprehensive overview of the evolutionary history of the said cluster is still missing and genetic relationships between populations is still lacking. Meanwhile, John Ilukor analyzed the animal health service delivery in Uganda and proposed specific government interventions to improve their services.

Overall, 12 student reporters are blogging, tweeting and taking pictures of the Tropentag 2012. We are from countries around the globe and have diverse research backgrounds. In the following you can find more information about us and our responsibilities: The editors are mainly writing this blog here , are blogging on facebook or tweeting on twitter . The members of this team are: Divya Rajeswari Swaminathan (India), PhD student in Developmental Studies, Centre for Developmental Research in Bonn Minette Flora Mendoza De Asis (Philippines), PhD student in Agricultural Economics, Humboldt-University Berlin Reginald Tang Guuroh (Ghana), PhD student in Vegetation Geography, UNU-EHS in Bonn Pamella Akoth Ogada (Kenya), research assistant in Plant Pathology and Entomology, University of Hannover Tina Atieno Omuombo (Kenya), PhD student in Quaternary Geology in Paleo-climate, University of Nairobi and University of Paris 6

Once again the fiat panis award winners were felicitated during the Tropentag 2012 conference. There were two awards in total, the Hans H. Ruthenberg Award for Graduates 2012 for master level students and the Josef G. Knoll European Science Award 2012 for PhD students. The following are the winners of the Hans H. Ruthenberg Award for Graduates 2012: Lilli Scheiterle from University of Hohenheim spoke about her research work in Ghana. She carried out research on the topic “Opportunities and Challenges in the Production of Maize in Northern Ghana”. Lilli Scheiterle Reginald Tang Guuroh from Ghana, doing his PhD in University of Bonn at present spoke on his research topic “Contribution of Home Gardens to Household Income Generation in Burkina Faso- A Case study of Bieha District”. Reginald Tang Guuroh

Prof. Rodomiro Ortiz spoke about the role of "Agrobiodiversity Management for Food Security" in one of the plenary sessions of Tropentag 2012. He is presently Faculty Professor, Department of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden. His presentation dealt about World´s food, Agrobiodiversity, Green Revolution, Climate change and Biotechnology tools. The global food crisis is a major concern in today’s world. There is an annual increase of 78 million population in the world. More than 1.5 billion people are suffering from obesity worldwide while more than one billion people are under poverty and around three billion people are under/ nourished. 30% of all food crops worldwide are wasted. The main challenge today related to global crisis is “the world continues facing an increasing demand for nutritious and quality food, feed, fiber and fuel”. “Agriculture needs eco-efficient and resilient systems to meet end-user demands” said Prof. Ortiz. The three main components of agrobiodiversity are Genetic, Species and Ecosystem diversity. He also spoke about germplasm enhancement and crop breeding and the two main phases involved: “collection and generation of variation and reproductive potential followed by selection of most productive surviving genotypes”.

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.

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.