The Science Forum 2013 in Bonn, Germany, Discusses the Links between Agriculture and Health and how they can be Improved Imagine for a moment that you're a small-scale farmer from a poor region and you grow a number of crops. Some of the crops you sell for cash which you probably use to purchase other foods you don't grow yourself, or to pay for other family expenses. The food you don't sell, you eat. But you later decide to start growing a high-yielding cotton variety with a good market demand. Your new choice in crop brings you greater income which you then use to purchase a wider range of healthier, more nutritious foods that you may not have had access to before. Such a scenario makes sense, unless you consider the contradicting evidence currently coming from research in China. (read more)

Who are you? Cory Whitney from the Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences. What Presentation did you find most interesting on the last day of Tropentag?... (read more)

Frank insights by Sarah Glatzle, organizer of the student reporter’s stay and work at the Tropentag 2013.

This year's Tropentag is expecting a considerable turnout of over 825 registered participants representing around 80 countries. Organisation for such a conference is no easy task, says Bärbel Sagi, Tropenzetrum employee and Tropentag coordinator. Preperations began over half a year ago... (read more)

Writing and being creative with photos and text is a passion of me; combining this interest with scientific knowledge is a great opportunity to learn and go deeper into certain topics and is also why I applied as a Student Reporter for the Tropentag 2013. I am currently enrolled in a Master Program at the Bern University of Applied Sciences, at the School for Agricultural, Forestry and Food Sciences in Switzerland (HAFL). I did my Bachelor in International Agriculture and am now majoring in Sustainable Agricultural and Forestry Production Systems. My task as a Student Reporter will mainly be to take and edit photos from the different sessions. I find our international group of Student Reporters very inspiring and I am looking forward to work together for the Tropentag Blog on this interesting conference. We will give our best on making it most interesting also for YOU all out there.

Dear Sir or Madam, when you are thinking who is hiding behind the huge Canon camera at the Tropentag 2013, then here are the face and information about your camerawoman. Viviane Meyer has a Polish/German nationality and was born in Bersenbrück, Lower Saxony. She just finished her Bachelor degree in Environmental and Resource Management at the Brandenburg Technical University of Cottbus and will start in October to study Environmental Protection and Agricultural Food Production at University Hohenheim. Viviane did an internship at the environmental organization WALHI in Indonesia where she got to know the manifold problems regarding oil palm plantations. She is proud to be a Student Reporter and to capture memories of the Tropentag 2013 in expressive pictures.

Louisa has already lived in and travelled to many countries: originally from Hong Kong,