ZEF Board member Professor Bina Agarwal, Professor of Development Economics and Environment at the University of Manchester, UK, will give a key note on Wednesday, September 20 at 1:40 PM, immediately after a talk by Mr. Monty Jones, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security of Sierra Leone.
Nearly 1,000 scientists from 68 countries meet for the annual Tropentag from September 19-22, 2017, in the University of Bonn’s main building. This is the largest scientific conference in Europe on tropical and subtropical agriculture, the management of natural resources and rural development. Here, the latest research in these areas is presented and discussed.
"About half of the participants are masters and doctoral students who present their research and use the opportunity to exchange about ideas, insights and results," says Prof. Dr. Mathias Becker
from the Institute for Crop Science and Resource Conservation at the University of Bonn (INRES),
who is organizing this year's Tropentag together with Prof. Dr. Christian Borgemeister from the
Center for Development Research (ZEF) of the University of Bonn.
Numerous invited experts from research and politics contribute to the attractiveness and international
visibility of the event, with impulse presentations and discussions. "The Tropentag offers a huge
interdisciplinary platform and networking opportunity for development-relevant research on topics such
as resource management, environment, agriculture, forestry, fishing, nutrition in the context of rural
development, sustainable resource use and poverty reduction worldwide," explains Borgemeister.
The Tropentag's theme: The future of Agriculture
This year's Tropentag is devoted to the question of how global agriculture can face the growing challenges. These include climate change, land degradation, population growth and urbanization. In particular, farmers in developing countries are severely affected. They are also increasingly experiencing the consequences of overarching political decisions on which they have little to no impact, such as establishing protection zones.
Farmers respond with different land use and production strategies to these challenges, for example by
increasing their yields through intensification, cultivating different crops for risk minimization (diversification) or rather by specializing in order to become market leader. "But in turn, farmers are reacting with land rural exodus and migration. In addition, there are often conflicts between different land and resource users”, says Becker. This is why the scientists are dealing with the local and global consequences of farmers' actions for food security, as well as for rural and agricultural development.
Central Asia included
For the first time, the Tropentag 2017 has put challenges of resource use in Central Asia on its agenda.
A further focus is on agro-forestry systems, which is manifested in numerous contributions of the World
Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) in Kenya as this year's partner from the group of international agricultural
research centers.
Hans H. Ruthenberg Prize of the Fiat Panis Foundation
During the conference, the Hans H. Ruthenberg Prize of the Fiat Panis Foundation will also be awarded for the best doctoral thesis.
Patronage of Federal Minister Gerd Müller
Tropentag 2017 is under the patronage of the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and
Development (BMZ), Dr. Gerd Müller, who is expected to give a welcome address on Wednesday, September 20 at 1:00 PM in Lecture Hall 10 of the University's main building.
Background
The "Tropentag" is annually organized jointly by the following universities: Berlin, Bonn, Göttingen,
Hohenheim, Kassel-Witzenhausen, ETH Zurich, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna and Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. In addition, the Leibniz Center for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), the Working Group for Tropical and Subtropical Agricultural Research (ATSAF) and the Advisory Group on Development-oriented Agricultural Research (BEAF) of the
German Association for International Cooperation (GIZ) are involved.
The most important sponsors are the University of Bonn, the BMZ, the GIZ, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Federal Ministry of Agriculture (BLE) and the German Research Foundation (DFG).
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More information about and registration with the Tropentag at: <link http: www.tropentag.de internal link in current>www.tropentag.de
Contact for media:
Alma van der Veen
Center for Development Research (ZEF)
University of Bonn
Tel. 0228/731846
E-Mail: presse.zef@uni-bonn.de
