Review 2012

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In the winter semester 2012/13, 910 students were enrolled in the Department of Organic Agricultural Sciences . They were distributed across the individual degree programs as follows:

  • Bachelor of Organic Agriculture: 570 (incl. 12 from the old diploma program)
  • Master's in Organic Agriculture: 101
  • Sustainable International Agriculture (SIA, cooperation with the University of Göttingen): 106 (incl. 2 from the old International Organic Agriculture degree program)
  • International Food Business and Consumer Studies (IFBC, cooperation with Fulda University of Applied Sciences): 83
  • Exchange students: 10
  • Doctoral students: 40

As part of the Event Management module, students organized the 20th Witzenhausen Conference from 4 - 8 December with 120 participants, this year with the title "Naturally colourful - the political spectrum of organic agriculture".

As part of an IFBC project, a conference on the topic of "Stop Wasting Food" was held at the partner university in Fulda from December 6-7.

In March 2012, the Mentor Network, a program for the targeted support and advice of female students at Faculty 11 by working female graduates, began its work.

In 2012, the Department of Organic Agricultural Sciences raised € 4.8 million in third-party funding.

A good 90 articles from our department were published in peer-reviewed scientific journals in 2012 (see websites of the individual departments). A total of 25 doctorates were completed.

Of the large number of research projects carried out last year, the projects with several scientific cooperation partners that were completed or started in 2012 should be listed as examples:

 

Completed cooperation projects:

  • "Development of a concept for marketing organic goat lamb meat from milking farms" (Marketing of organic goat lamb meat). (BLE)
  • Sustainable ordering systems and controlled traffic farming (CTF)
  • Utilization of waste heat from bioenergy in agriculture
  • UrbanFood(Volkswagen Foundation): African-German partnership to identify challenges and opportunities for nutrient efficient agriculture in West African cities.
  • ALUCCSA- Adaptation of Landuse to Climate Change in Sub-Saharan Africa (at the University of Göttingen)
  • "Detection of clone-site interactions in poplar and willow on agricultural sites in short rotation periods - ProLoc (ErtagsProgamm/Klon)" ( HMULV)
  • "Dynamics of soil C and N fractions and plant productivity during the conversion of short rotation plantations (SRC) to arable or grassland use - Short rotation plantation conversion (KURZUM)"
  • PROGRASS Conservation of nature conservation grassland through decentralized energy recovery (EU)
  • Influence of biodiversity on the expression and spectral calibration of bioenergetic parameters of smooth oat grassland vegetation (DFG)
  • "Biocrystallization for the evaluation of technologies in the production of raw milk cheese and cheese from pasteurized milk over the course of the year"

Cooperation projects started:

  • "Data network for better European organic market information" (OrganicDataNetwork). Duration: January 2012 to December 2014 (EU)
  • "Regionalfenster - Evaluation of consumer acceptance" (regional window). (BLE)
  • Coordinated European Animal Welfare Network (EUWelNet)
  • (DG SANCO, duration 1 year, consortium of 26 partners from 16 countries,
  • Protein-rich, plant-based animal feed and process for its production in cooperation with Fulda University of Applied Sciences
  • Development and testing of a stress-free stunning and killing method for cattle from year-round free-range husbandry in cooperation with bsi, Bauk, Bunde Wischen e.V.
  • A Comprehensive Analysis of Subsurface Irrigation in SSA for an Optimization and Adaption of an Environment friendly Irrigation Practice
  • RELOAD - Reduction of Post Harvest Losses and Value Addition in East African Food Value Chains (BMBF)
  • WATERCOPESupporting national strategies to cope with increasing land use intensity, dwindling water resources and threats to ecosystem services in the trans-border Altay-Dzungarian region of Mongolia and China. (IFAD):
  • Tool for the systematic recording and optimization of nutrient efficiency in dairy farming (BLE joint project).
  • IMPRO - Impact matrix analysis and cost-benefit calculations to improve management practices regarding health status in organic dairy farming (www.impro-dairy.eu). (EU)
  • "C- and N-rhizide deposition in pure pea seed and in mixed cultivation: Spatial distribution, temporal dynamics, microbial turnover and transfer processes" (DFG)
  • "Recording of clone-site interactions in poplar and willow on agricultural sites in short rotation periods - ProLoc (yield program Locus) - project phase II" (Northwest German Forest Research Institute)
  • "Further development and testing of a concept for the documentation and evaluation of agricultural research services for practice and society" (BLE)
  • COMBINE - "Converting Organic Matters from Europe's urban and natural areas into storable Bioenergy (EU)
  • DANUBENERGY - "Improving eco-efficiency of bio-energy production and supply in riparian areas of the Danube river basin and other floodplains in Central Europe" (EU)
  • OSCAR, "Optimizing Subsidiary Crop Applications in Rotations" (EU)
  • European Master "Green Food Industries" (EU)

The department has received a number of awards, including the following:

  • Katharina Zipp for innovative and practical work on the topic of "Animal-friendly dairy farming" in the Master's degree category for the thesis
  • "Influence of space availability in the waiting area on heart rate and agonistic behavior of horned dairy cows of different social status"
  • Dr. Meike Janssen (together with another prizewinner) was awarded the prize for the best dissertation 2011 by the Society for Economic and Social Sciences in Agriculture (GEWISOLA).
  • Dr. Jan Khalsa was awarded the Ernst Klapp Future Prize of the Society for Crop Sciences.
  • Christian Vieth was accepted into the Ashoka Network for Social Entrepreneurs as an Ashoka Fellow
  • Greenhouse for tropical and subtropical crops:
  • Cooperation project "Global Learning in the Botanical Garden " (http://www.globaleslernenimbotanischengarten.de/).
  • Award: as a "Project of the UN Decade on Biodiversity".
  • Prize of the "Agricultural Heritage Foundation" 2012 for the creation of a "Historical tour on the history of forced labor on the Frankenhausen domain, 1939-1949" to a student project group: Hannah Fritsch, Annette Haak and Frank Kessel, supervised by Dr. Jochen Ebert
  • Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hamm was appointed to the Bioeconomy Council of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
  • Prof. Dr. Ute Knierim was appointed to the Scientific Advisory Board for Agricultural Policy of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV).

The department conducted a large number of guided tours and information events for visitor groups. Larger events were held in 2012:

  • January - September 2012: Cooperation between the department and the Frankenhausen Domain with the American artist Claire Pentecost for her installation "Soil Erg" on the occasion of dOCUMENTA (13) and
  • Support for the artist collective And And And in their d(13) actions.
  • Participation in the School for Worldly Companions to train the wordly companions of d(13)
  • Open day for the department as part of the Witzenhausen Green Week on 29.04.2012
  • Plant market around the tropical greenhouse on 29.04.2012
  • Exhibition "Get off the beaten track" 13.04.-03.05.12
  • Field day on the topic of "Soil fertility" in cooperation with the LLH 02.07.2012
  • Information stand at the Green Career trade fair 27.-28.10.12
  • Presentations and information stand at the Biofach from 14-18.02.12
  • Information stand at the Euro-Tier 13-16.11.12
  • Study information days on 20.1., 29.04., 25.05. and 23.11.2012
  • 34th Biomass Day: NaWaRo-Logistics 29.06.12
  • Annual conference of the university association on the topic of "Conflicting goals of agricultural production: food production versus production for bioenergy production" on 13.7.2012
  • AGGF Conference 2012: "Energetic utilization of grassland growths", 30.08.-1.9.12
  • Conference "Regulation of soil organic matter and nutrient turnover in agriculture", 15-16.11.2012
  • Faculty Day: 26-27.01.2012 for Agricultural Sciences and Ecotrophology in Witzenhausen
  • Summer School: 03. - 12.06.2012 "Applied Solar Technology in Developing Countries" DAAD funding
  • Tropentag: 19-21.09.12 in Göttingen: "Resilience of agricultural systems against crises" (jointly organized by the Universities of Kassel/Witzenhausen and Göttingen)

In 2012, 19 professors and 1 junior professor worked at our department together with a total of around 200 academic and administrative/technical staff. One professorship and one junior professorship belong equally to the University of Göttingen and the University of Kassel.

Prof. Dr. Stephan Peth has started as head of the Department of Soil Science. Dr. Christian Schüler retired as a long-standing research assistant. Many long-standing secretarial staff also left: Barbara Brübach, Monika Klaus, Evelyn Meinhardt, Lydia Rammenzweig, Karin Stahn and Irmgard Zeuner.