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,

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

Indonesia is in the spotlight! At least three out of the six participants who did their oral presentation at the Tropentag annual conference on Tuesday (15/9), had drawn their interest on the country known to the world as the third largest forest nation after Brazil and the Republic of Congo. And the theme on forest management was a kick off with a total of 6 participants (oral presentations) focusing on case studies coming from developing countries. The latest scheme of Reducing Emission on Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) was presented by Thomas Baldauf (vTI/ von Thuenen-Institute, Institute for World Forestry, Germany), with a topic of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD): A Climate Change Mitigation Strategy on a Critical Track who focused his research in Indonesia and Madagascar. According to the speaker, and as a result to his research, the REDD scheme was seen to benefit Indonesia the most, due to the high deforestation rates in the country that was lately ranked as the 3rd largest greenhouse gas emitter due to deforestation (based on a report study released by Worldbank).

ADEBAYO ABRAHAM ADEWUMI: Lean Meat for the 21st Century: A Case Study of Emu Dromaius Novae Hollandiae [Le Souef 1907] The emu bird, only slightly smaller than the ostrich, is originally from Australia. It will grow up to two meters tall and weigh 60 kg. Its red meat is almost fat free, low in cholesterol and high in protein and iron. In the study, the meat of 16 emus was analyzed and compared to beef. Emu meat's cholesterol level is about 35% lower than that of beef. In regards to the total minerals there were no differences. Since consumers are looking for appetizing food and are increasingly basing their choice on fat, calories and cholesterol, Emu meat is the perfect choice. FOLUSHO UGWU: Complimentary Feeding Practices and Nutrient Intake of Children Aged 6-18 Months in Ebonyi State, South East Nigeria

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

Challenges in feeding the world is not only an issue of production but also an issue of demand, said Christian Nellemann from the United Nations Environment Programme GRID Arendal today at the Tropentag Conference in Zürich. He stated later on that while agriculture surely has impacts on the environment, but more important to understand is how the environment provides the platform for food production. Land degradation and loss of ecosystems services will cost 5-25% of food production by 2050. Some of the causes are considered to derive from uses of pesticides, nitrogen, and phosphate fertilizers which have increased since 1961-1999. Furthermore, the irrigated land today has doubled. Water is also a huge deal of an issue. From the water that we consumed, 75% of it goes to food production. More interesting to realize is that wastewater pollution from ineffective irrigation systems require more water and result in greater run-off, in which we loose 50-70% of N and P.

Jimmy Smith, a lead economist from the World Bank Institute is working in Poverty Reduction and Economic Management in Africa. At the Tropentag conference in Zurich, he was talking about the role of livestock for the world food system. What was very important to the speaker, was the definition of food security. According to him, food security exists, when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Since lifestyles have changed during the past decades in developed countries as well as in developing countries, there is a enormous gain in consumption of different foods like milk, meat or crop. A problem is the availability and accessibility of those foods in developing countries. As feeding people does not nourish them, it is important to increase the accessibility of markets, so those people who are directly or indirectly depending on livestock for their livelihoods are able to nourish themselves. There are different opportunities and challenges that must be faced, like the discounting of domestic markets, different types of emissions that are caused by agriculture or the human-animal health, which, according to Jimmy Smith, should be linked to the so called "one health".