Agriculture science for most people has this name of being bad, of being about pollution, about large-scale, about the destruction of the environment. That is not necessary. We need more science and not less. And we need good science. But there is something we must do. It's not enough to say "Let's get more bold science into agriculture." We ourselves must go back, and think about our own food chain. We need to think differently about our science as a whole. Every meal we eat contains ingredients from all across the world. Everything makes us so privileged, that we can eat this food, that we don't struggle every day. And that, evolutionarily-speaking, is unique. We've never had that before. This is why it's time for agricutural scientists to stand for responsible agriculture and food consumption, as they are crucial to world stability. Enjoy the talk of Louise Fresco, a powerful thinker and sustainability advisor, on feeding the whole world. She says environmentally sound mass production will feed the world, yet leaving a role for small scalers and traditional methods.

On his reactions to the Tropentag, Jack Heinemann, Professor for Genetics and Gene Ecology at the University of Canterbury, NZ, and author of the book “Hope not Hype: The Future of Agriculture”, commented that this event gives a legacy to the milestone report “International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development” known as IAASTD. This international documents is in danger of being forgotten. When different stakeholders discuss and reflect on the report it helps to keep the message into the head, and keep pressures on the policy makers. Read summaries of the presentation and discussion on the report on our blog post, Final Address: Agriculture at the Crossroads or missing K,

All the keynotes are now accessible as video streams at the ETH Multimedia Portal. Be sure to check it out!

Simon Cook, Challenge programme on water and food talks on how water crises affect development. He considers four major nested crises which inlcude water scarcity, vulnerability with related to hazards, lack of sharing of information, resources and distribution of benefits and water productivity . These problems can only be solved through multidisciplinary or transdisciplinar approach, and Tropentag contributes importantly to the existing knowledge of water and development. Watch and listen to his conclusive comments

The opinions of young professionals such as Ph.D. students were very positive around the Tropentag conference. Tropentag accommodates a diversity of disciplines, themes, cultures, and geographical territories and as such it has grown as a major European platform to cater development. Watch and listen to student voices..

´Tropentag is a perfect place where we meet great diversity of people, scientific presentation and ideas', according to the opinion of Michael Hauser, who represents Agrinatura and BOKU. Agrinatura (http://www.agrinatura.eu/) supports the Tropentag through student grant since it promotes research for development. He is of the opinion that Tropentag is a knowledge intensive event, and it is time to think about how we can put this knowledge into practice for improvement of the livelihoods of millions of poor. He remarks that by innovating ideas of the Student reporter, this year Tropentag enables spreading the message to the researchers, practitioners and development professionals across the geographical boundaries. Watch his conclusive comments and remarks.

A junior researcher commented on 14 th September, 'I wanted to participate in a conference in Mexico, but I could not. It was costly. I found the Tropentag is more cheaper for a student to participate'. Actually Tropentag has more to offer for young professionals. Watch and listen to the human resources department of GTZ, how as a development agency they like to use this event to search for potential young professionals.

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 agricultural scientist, in order to fight against hunger and poverty in Africa, should focus on the evidence based practices but not to attach to the prejudices of the contemporary science parctices. Do you agree or disagree? Read summary of his presentation in earlier post, 'How to feed the bottom billion?' and watch the video and comment