The Tropentag conference this year has been organized by the Universities of Göttigen and Kassel that are currently cooperating in green areas of research. This cooperation between the 2 universities started in 2005 with synergies that extend to shared professorships and a joint Masters’ Programme on Sustainable International Agriculture that focuses on 3 key areas of agriculture: international organic agriculture, tropical agriculture and agribusiness and rural development economies. The joint research focuses on agroecological problems and the resilience of food production systems which is the theme of the tropentag this year.