Review 2017

In the winter semester 2017/18, 1225 students were enrolled in the Department of Organic Agricultural Sciences. They were distributed across the individual degree programs as follows:

• Bachelor of Organic Agriculture: 741
• Master's in Organic Agriculture: 178
• Sustainable International Agriculture (SIA, cooperation with the University of Göttingen): 171
• International Food Business and Consumer Studies (IFBC, cooperation with Fulda University of Applied Sciences): 114
• Sustainable Food Systems (Susfoods, cooperation with Fulda, Lyon, Ghent, Cluj, Aarhus): 4
• Exchange students: 4
• Doctoral students: 44

As part of the Event Management module, students organized the 25th Witzenhausen Conference from 5 - 9 December with 180 participants. This year's title was "The whole range - Biological diversity as a strength of organic farming".

In the winter semester, a lecture series entitled "Climate Change, migration, and violent extremism: the United Nations' role to prevent and volve the conflicts in the agricultural context" was organized by students of the Master IFBC in particular, and larger excursions abroad took place to Denmark (Organic Agriculture course) and Costa Rica (Master Sustainable International Agriculture).

In 2017, the Department of Organic Agricultural Sciences raised € 7.2 million in third-party funding. In the summer semester, the doctoral program "Food Industry and Technology" was established in cooperation with Fulda University of Applied Sciences.

Around 102 articles from our department were published in peer-reviewed scientific journals in 2017 (see websites of the individual departments). In addition, the textbook "Organic Agriculture" was published, to which many specialist areas of the department contributed. A total of 29 doctorates and two habilitations 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 2017 are listed as examples.

Completed cooperation projects:

• SAPDRY Aflatoxin contamination/ moisture-absorbing polymers (BMBF/ DLR)
• Acoustic detection in silo systems (BLE)
• C and N rhizodeposition in pure pea seed and in mixed cropping (DFG)
• Improved soil fertility management for sustainable intensification ill potato based systems in Ethiopia and Kenya (CIP)
• Healthy plants from healthy soils: Resilience and stability for organic cropping systems (Ekhaga Stiftelsen, Stockholm, Sweden)
• Small-scale and dynamic analysis of microstructural rhizosphere and drillosphere properties: porosity and physicochemistry and their importance for root growth, nutrient storage and delivery (DFG)
• Visual communication to enhance innovation transfer in urban and peri-urban agriculture of Quagadougou (VW Foundation)
• WATERCOPE - Supporting national research capacity and policy development to cope with dwindling water resources and intensifying land use in the transborder Altay-Dzungarian region of Mongolia and China (IFAD)
• New viral diseases in peas and field beans: Status quo analysis and recommendations for action (BLE)
• Doctoral Program for sustainable agricultural and food systems (SAFS) - Under the call for structured doctoral program: Between Europe and the Orient - A focus on research and higher education in central Asia and the Caucasus (Volkswagen Foundation)
• Methodology and methodology of farm animal welfare research. A project within the framework of the Loewe focus animal-human-society. (LOEWE-Land Hessen)
• Excellent Cattle, Excellent Farmers: Representation, Identity Formation and Actor Community in the Mirror of Awards (1780-2000). A project as part of the Loewe focus on animal-human society. (LOEWE-Land Hessen)
• Attitudes of the population towards (farm) animals (LOEWE project - State of Hesse)

Cooperation projects started:

• Vegan organic products (BLE)
• PigSys - Improving the performance of pig farming systems by applying an overall system approach (BLE)
• SMOSYS - Grinding assistance system (Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank)
• UPGRADE Plus (BLE)
• AUTOWOHL - Automated recording of animal welfare indicators in poultry (BLE)
• Promotion of organic farming - measures, strategies and operational perspectives (Thünen Institute)

The following members or projects of the department received awards in 2017:

• Dr. Adriano Profeta (FG Agricultural and Food Marketing): Poster Prize 2017 in the field of humanities and social sciences
• Ms. Marina Hethke (Tropical Greenhouse, University of Kassel): Zander Medal 2017 (initiated by the Association of Botanical Gardens)

The following members were appointed or elected to specialist committees in 2017

• Prof. Dr. D. Möller (FG Business Administration): General Committee of the DLG e.V.
• Prof. Dr. D. Möller (Department of Business Administration): Committee for Business Consulting and Accounting of DLG e.V.
• Prof. Dr. Jürgen Heß (Organic Farming and Crop Production Group): Sustainability Council of the State of Lower Saxony
• Ms. Hethke (Curator of the Tropical Greenhouse): "Expert forum on non-formal/informal education" for the preparation of the National Action Plan on Education for Sustainable Development.

The department conducted a large number of guided tours and information events for visitor groups. Larger events were held in 2017:

• Presentations and information stand at the Biofach trade fair in Nuremberg from 15-18.02.17
• Open day of the department and plant market of the tropical greenhouse on 30.04.2017
• Premiere of the organic field days from 21.06.-22.06.17 at the Frankenhausen domain
• Foodoctopia - crisis counter kiosk at Documenta 14 from June - September 2017
• Support for Abubakar Fofana's exhibition at Documenta 14 by providing indigo plants from June - September 2017
• Annual conference of the university association "Ways to better animal welfare in agriculture" on 21.07.2017
• Participation of the Department of Soil Science at the "Technik zum Anfassen" trade fair on 24/09/2017 in Witzenhausen
• 60th conference of the Society for Crop Science e.V. from 26 - 28.09.2017 in Witzenhausen
• Contribution to the "Kassel Summer School in Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods" with the module "Eye-Tracking in Social Research" from 9.10. and 10.10.
• International DAAD Alumni Seminar "Smart and Adapted Technologies in Agriculture for Productive and Sustainable Land Use Systems in Developing Countries" November 6-13, 2017 in Witzenhausen
• The department was represented at Agritechnica from 12 - 18.11.17 in Hanover.
• Organization of the university day on the topic "Ways to improved management in organic livestock farming - cooperation between science, consulting and practice" on 04.12.2017

In 2017, 21 professors worked at our department together with a total of around 215 academic and administrative/technical staff. Three professorships (Prof. Dr. Eva Schlecht, Research Group Livestock Husbandry in the Tropics and Subtropics; Prof. Dr. Claudia Neu, Research Group Sociology of Rural Areas and Prof. Dr. Tobias Plieninger, Research Group Socioecological Interactions in Agricultural Systems) belong in equal parts to the University of Göttingen and the University of Kassel.

Prof. Dr. Tobias Plieninger started as head of the "Socio-ecological Interactions in Agricultural Systems" department in the winter semester 17/18. Dr. Adriano Profeta was recruited as a further lecturer in statistics and empirical social research and Hannes Schulz MSc in organic vegetable production and special crops. The scientific position for biodynamic agriculture has been secured for a further five years through co-financing by the Software Ag Foundation and has been filled by Dr. Jürgen Fritz and Dr. Daniel Kusche. 2017 saw Mr. Kunick and Mr. Kölsch retire as long-standing employees of the department.

Changes in the Dean's Office: Prof. Dr. Hamm took over the position of Vice Dean from Prof. Dr. Möller in the summer semester. Prof. Dr. Ploeger took over the position of Dean of Studies from Prof. Dr. Ludwig in the winter semester.