Vétérinaires Sans Frontières is an NGO that operates in East Africa. They support pastoral communities through various projects, such as training animal health workers, who travel through local communities helping to both detect common diseases, and vaccinate against them. Another example is improving food hygiene, by providing aluminum cans to store milk. For more, go to their website

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) hosts the prestigious ”Green Talents – International Forum for High Potentials in Sustainable Development” to promote the international exchange of innovative green ideas. The winners come from numerous countries and scientific disciplines and are recognised for their outstanding achievements in making our societies more sustainable.

According to project coordinator Julia Kirschner, winning the Green Talents Award means you are invited with the other 24 recipients to Germany to attend the Green Talents Science Forum. You do not only get a chance to travel around Germany, but the chance to visit three experts of your choice. A year later you can arrange to have a research stay for three months at the institution of your choice.

A recipient of the award in 2016, Hèou Maléki Badjana from Togo shares his thoughts and experiences in the video below.

If you are interested in the Green Talents Competition 2018 please register for their Competition Alert and you will be informed as soon as the next submission period starts.

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Phillip Straub, a first-time participant at Tropentag has developed a diet for the desert locust. The outstanding young German researcher submitted an abstract from his Bachelor’s degree thesis. He was overwhelmed after hearing he was selected for an oral presentation. To say the least, he was very excited. Philip is convinced that insects for food is the next big thing. “There are new developments every day, it is exciting,” he said. Philip won a GIZ scholarship to carry out his research project at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), Kenya.

He sought to develop a storable diet for the desert locust that could be used for mass rearing. The desert locust is consumed by humans and can also be used as an animal feed supplement. He tested five different formulations for human food. They mainly consisted of powdered cowpea, cornmeal, soy bean and carrots in different ratios. Some were enriched with multivitamins. Two diets worked well. “My findings are a starting point for optimizing diets with a longer shelf-life for insects,” he explains.

Many of the most influential agricultural innovations in the past century are due to the support of private foundations. In the hopes of inspiring another, Dr. Hermann Eiselen founded the Fiat Panis Foundation in 2000 to support young scientists as they conducted innovative research projects aimed at improving food security in developing countries. Andrea Fadani, the executive director of the Fiat Panis foundation, awarded the Hans H. Ruthenberg Award for Graduates to two brilliant young scientists at the Tropentag 2017 for just that. “Genome based identification of heterotic pattern in rice”, Ulrike Beukert, University of Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg

Rice is one of the most important staple crops in the world. A lot of research has been conducted, but more investigations are needed in order to optimize land use by maximizing yield. Ulrike Beukert, a MSc. student at the University of Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg, conducted an investigation on boosting yield by exploiting heterosis in rice. Results show that heterosis provides enhanced yield stability and increased abiotic and biotic stress resistance.

The Hans Hartwig Ruthenberg Graduate Award is given to the promising young scientist who work for improving the farming system and constantly fight for hunger. This year Ulrike and Sarah were honored.

Ulrike Beukert

How will we feed the growing population and high demand of rice in the future? For a long time, plant breeding has been popular answer to this question. However, flat results and high use of resources is a growing challenge. Ulrike Beukert, Plant Breeding student from Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg has a new approach to rice breeding. Her research on “Genome-based identification of heterotic patterns in rice,” used only small selection of hybrid to predict the entire parent-line. Applying bio-statistic analysis of yield and gene marker data, she can increase the prediction accuracy and improve yield.

We interviewed Professor Mathias Becker from the University of Bonn. He is organizing this year’s conference. Learn more about his experiences and expectations in this video