Tropentag 2019 - Student blog - Science Forum

Research agenda should start from the plate

Minette Flora Mendoza De Asis — Mon, 30 Sep 2013 14:48:48 +0000

“Look at what people consume”, dares Frank Rijsberman of the CGIAR Consortium of Board Members. “Research agendas in the past had a strong focus on the supply side, it is high time to re-shift and start with the demand – basically looking at what people want”, he added. Earlier, there was an over-focus on staple based food such as grains. However, there should be an appropriate balance of food into CGIAR programs such as animal sourced food, legumes and lentils Plenary: The Way Forward Toilets in the research agenda Frank Rijsberman apparently is a water person having worked in IWMI and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s project on Water, Sanitation & Hygiene. With these backgrounds, he stressed on the importance of water as an input to agriculture and emphasized to bring sanitation and hygiene in the agenda. He gave an example on the impact of treated water (from toilets) in peri-urban agriculture.

Quality of food over quantity matters, what the German development cooperation has to say

Minette Flora Mendoza De Asis — Fri, 27 Sep 2013 14:07:32 +0000

About 200 million euros until 2020 will be invested by the German development cooperation to interventions in rural development, agriculture and food security, says Stefan Schmitz of the BMZ. There is again a renewed international interest in these sectors, however, the commitments are long overdue. Linking agriculture, health and nutrition is the key development policy as it reduces poverty compared to other investments. “We will have a stronger focus now on healthy and nutritious food that is readily accessible and available”, he added. Plenary: The Way Forward

Student Assistants at Science Forum 2013

Xi Zhao — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 13:07:25 +0000

When you arrived at the metro station for the Science Forum 2013 in Bonn, you will always be warmly welcomed by two or three young students. Therey are some of the 12 student assistants for the Science Forum, who will tell you where to go. They have many other little tasks, such as preparing the conferece materials, and manging electronic equipment. They have made an invaluable contribution to the success of the conference. Find out that they are actually capable of answering more question than just the way to the restroom! Tobias Gerhartsreiter, studying Geography as a master student at Wuerzburg University, is doing an internship at GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit). He is looking forward to improving skills for a future career at GIZ. Vandasue Rodrigues, from Bangalore of India, is a master student in Plant Sciences at University of Bonn. She has been in Germany for two years. She enjoys meeting people from all of the world with different cultural backgrounds.

Facts and Figures: Did you know that cooking loses the beta carotene in food?

Minette Flora Mendoza De Asis — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 09:07:22 +0000

The study conducted by Inge Brouwer of Wageningen University confirms that beta carotene retention in raw food is higher than in cooked food. She took the example of sukuma wiki, a wild plant that is native in Kenya. During 28 hours of storage, the Beta carotene content of cooked sukuma wiki decreases from about 2.8 mg/100g to 1.6, while in raw food it slows down from 3.5 mg/100g to 2.1. One of the knowledge gaps she raised is how food composition tables especially for processed food can be improved. Inge Brouwer This study of sukuma wiki came about with the question of “Can local diets fulfill all nutrient requirements?” This is under the assumption that diet diversity, using locally available, acceptable and affordable food, can fulfill the energy and micro-nutrient needs of people. She concluded that apart from sukuma wiki which is already explored, improvement of diets with locally available food may not fulfill all the nutrient requirements such as iron, calcium and zinc. She cautioned that more information is needed before promoting them. If you want to learn more about how to identify the nutrients people obtain from their local diets, you can visit this website (http://www.fantaproject.org/tools/optifood).