Tropentag 2019 - Student blog - Student Reporter 2013; Tropentag 2013

NSA at Tropentag 2013

Eva Hilt — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 07:19:47 +0000

The oral presentation session “Food consumption, consumer preference and human health” hold rich reminders why agricultural research should not only focus on food production, but always need to keep an eye on the consumption side. Under the order of NSA, Hannah Jaenicke presented a holistic framework on how to narrow the gap between the already quantitatively sufficient supply of nutrients and a qualitatively balanced diet. Even though, this does not relate to the latest scandals from the US, her transatlantic observations for example included the fact even within one household some members are obese while others are undernourished.

Transition town – the story so far

Louisa Wong — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 21:34:55 +0000

Global warming, peak oil, climate change; GM seeds of the bio-giants BAYER and MONSANTO are ruining our biosphere; 40% of greenhouse gas emissions comes from the industrialized agriculture sector; – how to get from where we are now to an abundant, pleasurable and resilient future? The 65-minute long documentary film “Voices of Transition”gives us a concrete answer to this powerful question. Leigh Court Farm in England

Fish are dogs

Eva Hilt — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 19:14:18 +0000

Only 6 posters were presented in the session, and another hand full of people listened to them on early Thursday morning, so that Mr. Fitwi, moderator of the Poster presentation session “Aquaculture, fisheries and fish“, referred to them as the “underdogs” of the Tropentag 2013. However, the wide range of topics presented during the sessions shows that aquacultural research does not need to hide away from the big stages, but actually addresses very urgent topics such as depleting resources and women empowerment.

How do Non-timber forest products help Nigerian farmers?

Louisa Wong — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 13:10:53 +0000

African bush butter, oil bean seeds, soursop fruits, bush mango, African bread fruit, African star apple, bitter cola… Do you know there are many edible fruits in Africa and they are socio economically important for indigenous people and farmers?

Pigs on the Highway?

Eva Hilt — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 08:28:20 +0000

Pigs won’t drive a car anytime soon, around 30 people learned, when listening to the presentations “Nutrition of monogastric animals”.

Intensive Lunch versus Intensive Livestock Systems

Eva Hilt — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 08:23:57 +0000

The oral presentations during the Wednesday morning session represented the huge variety of aspects under the umbrella of ‘Intensive Livestock systems and services’, but stood in keen competition with time constraints due to a pushed forward lunch break.

GIZ projects to promote urban agriculture

Louisa Wong — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 08:22:32 +0000

GIZ projects to promote urban agriculture On Wednesday morning, representatives from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH shared their experience on rural development projects in Africa.

The only continuum is the one of exploitation and poverty!

Kirstin Ohlendorf — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 07:54:48 +0000

The session started of with an awakening keynote speech from FIAN President Dr. Flavio Luiz Schieck Valente. He asked researchers to use science to influence politics, because politicians have an impact on people’s lives. His presentation did not focus on the continuum as such, but rather on what actually happens to the people in the continuum?

What do cauliflower in Bangladesh, groundnuts in South Africa and wild vegetables species in Nepal have in common?

Kirstin Ohlendorf — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 16:00:17 +0000

… they all played an important role in the session on vegetable production within the rural-urban continuum, which not only offered insights into a lot of plant varieties, but also into a wide variety of topics from web based collaborative research between Thailand and Germany, via cauliflower cultivation in Dhaka to the cultivation of early Bambara groundnut for urban markets in Limpopo Province (South Africa).

Tomato Harvest on 11th floor

Eva Hilt — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 11:33:27 +0000

The pictures of the Carrot City project in the exhibition area around room B3, take you on a journey to different urban gardening projects in different cities of North America and Europe from the ground up to the roof of several leveled houses.