Review 2018

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In the 2018/19 winter semester, 1198 students were enrolled in the Department of Organic Agricultural Sciences. They were distributed across the individual degree programs as follows

  • Bachelor of Organic Agriculture 676
  • Master's in Organic Agriculture 192
  • 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) 100
  • Sustainable Food Systems (Susfoods, cooperation with Fulda, Lyon, Ghent, Cluj, Aarhus) 13
  • Exchange students 8
  • Doctoral students 38

As part of the Event Management module, the 26th Witzenhausen Conference took place from December 4 - 8 with the topic "The Last Dirt? Soil protection in politics and practice" with over 300 participants.

Three extensive lecture series took place in the winter semester: "Heimat, Volk und Scholle - Rechts(d)ruck im ländlichen Raum", "Marketing Gardening" and "Challenges and Possibilities for Sustainable Development Goals".

Excursions abroad took place to France (Bachelor and Master ÖL), Brussels (Master ÖL) and Latvia (Master IFBC).

In 2018, the Department of Organic Agricultural Sciences raised € 7.9 million in third-party funding.

Around 140 articles from our department were published in peer-reviewed scientific journals in 2018 (see websites of the individual departments). A total of 27 doctorates and three 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 2018 are listed as examples.

Completed cooperation projects:

  • UrbanFoodPlus - African-German partnership to enhance resource use efficiency and improve food security in urban and peri-urban agriculture of West African cities (BMBF)
  • BodMech II - Soil-conserving machine use in forests - development and testing of a new test method for determining dynamic soil stress (Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe FNR)
  • 3D architecture of microaggregates and their influence on mechanical stability and on water and oxygen supply of microhabitats (DFG)
  • SIGNAL - Sustainable intensification in agriculture through agroforestry systems (BMBF)
  • BONARES-SIGNAL - Diversity and activity of soil organism communities as indicators for sustainable land use (BMBF)
  • Öko-Kontrollkompetenz - Structured analysis of requirements and development of sector-wide coordinated training and further education concepts for organic inspectors (BLE)
  • Promotion of organic farming - measures, strategies and operational perspectives (Thünen Institute)
  • Regionalization of animal feed (BLE)

Other completed cooperation projects:

  • 2-Org-Cows project - Towards preventive health management for domestic dual-purpose cattle in organic pasture production systems using novel breeding strategies based on innovative data collection systems (EU, BLE)
  • GLOBE RELOAD - Reducing post-harvest losses and value addition in East African food supply chains (BMBF, ptj)
  • Organic Dairy Health - Improving animal health and welfare in organic dairy herds through breeding and management (BLE)
  • Biodiversity education as a cross-cutting issue of biology, politics and ethics - qualification measures at botanical gardens (DBU)

Cooperation projects already started:

  • Red cattle (BLE)
  • Vegan organic products (BÖLN, BLE)
  • Localization and quantification of physical and mechanical properties of the rhizosphere using X-ray microtomography and microsensor technology (DFG)
  • BONARES SIGNAL-Sustainable intensification of agriculture through agroforestry systems, TP B (BMBF)
  • CoAct - Stadt-Land-Plus- Integrated urban-rural concept for the production of activated carbon and energy sources from residual biomass (DBU)
  • Synergetic use of mobile and laboratory-based spectroscopic methods (Vis-NIR, laboratory and hand-held MIR, hyperspectral frame camera) for the optimized determination of temporally and spatially variable soil properties (DFG)
  • Sincere-H2020 - Spurring Innovations for Forest Ecosystems Services in Europe (EU)
  • Food and Water Security in the Levant: adopting an interdisciplinary approach (DAAD)
  • TEFSI - Transformation of European Food Systems (EU)

The following members or projects of the department received awards in 2018:

  • Julia Stark (FG Organic Crop Production): Research Award of the Organic Food Industry 2018 in the category best MSc. thesis
  • Jan Lanvers (Department of Organic Crop Production): Second place in the "Hessen Ideen" competition - raised bed idea of "Ackerwinde"
  • Katharina Menger (Agricultural and Food Marketing Group): Award for the best contribution at the OEGA (Austrian Agricultural Economists Conference)
  • Stephan Junge (FG Organic Plant Protection): Poster award University of Kassel 2018

The following members were appointed or elected to specialist committees in 2018

  • Prof. Dr. Gunter Backes (FG Plant Breeding and Agro-biodiversity): Board DAFA
  • Prof. Dr. Tobias Plieninger (Research Group Social-Ecological Interactions in Agricultural Systems): Member of the working group "Biodiversity in the Agricultural Landscape", German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
  • Prof. Dr. Tobias Plieninger (Research Group Social-Ecological Interactions in Agricultural Systems): Member of the working group "Historical Gardens in Climate Change", Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
  • Prof. Dr. Tobias Plieninger (Research Group Social-Ecological Interactions in Agricultural Systems): Review Editor, Chapter 5, Europe and Central Asia report, Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)
  • Prof. Dr. Detlev Möller (Department of Farm Economics): DLG e.V., General Committee
  • Prof. Dr. Detlev Möller (Department of Business Administration): DLG e. V., Committee for Business Consulting and Accounting

The department conducted a large number of guided tours and information events for visitor groups. Larger events were held in 2018:

  • Lectures and information stand at the Biofach trade fair in Nuremberg from February 14 - 17.
  • FerienKinderUni "Forschungswerkstatt Süßes oder Saures?" from March 26 - 28.
  • Plant market at the tropical greenhouse on April 29.
  • Field day at the Neu-Eichenberg experimental farm, organized by the Department of Organic Plant Protection on 19 June.
  • Conference "From organic agriculture to sustainable food systems, a re-view and a pre-view" on July 3.
  • Symposium and ceremony "25 years of interdisciplinary research at the Tropical Center in Witzenhausen" on July 13.
  • Conference "Mehrwerte Sozialer Landwirtschaft", organized by the Department of Organic Agriculture and Crop Production from 6 - 8 November.
  • The department was represented at the Eurotier in Hanover from November 13 - 16.
  • Symposium on crop and livestock diversity from November 23-25.

In 2018, 21 professors worked at our department together with a total of around 250 academic and administrative/technical staff. Three professorships belong equally to the University of Göttingen and the University of Kassel.

Prof. Dr. Dirk Hinrichs started as head of the "Animal Breeding" department and Prof. Dr. Johannes Kahl as head of the "Organic Food and Nutrition Culture" department in the 2018 summer semester.

In the summer semester 2018, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Angelika Ploeger (Department of Ecological Food and Nutrition Culture) retired.

Dr. Philip Beske-Janssen (Department of Agricultural and Food Marketing) has accepted an appointment as Assistant Professor at the Department of Operations Management at Copenhagen Business School.

Mr. Schäfer retired in 2018 as a long-standing member of the janitor staff.

Changes in the Dean's Office from 1.4.2018: Prof. Dr. Stephan Peth has taken over as Dean of Studies from Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Angelika Ploeger.