The morning started with keynote speeches to introduce the workshops. Monika Schreiner presented the future visions of the BMBF funding line to get the participants into the right mood for the topic: What is necessary to implement bioeconomic principles in agriculture?
The panel of the morning workshop.
The first part of the workshop "What is needed to foster transformation in agriculture?" was introduced by Prof Sonoko Bellingrath-Kimura from the Leibniz-Centre of Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) and coordinator of the "Agricultural Systems of the Future" consortium DAKIS. he gave an insight into the agricultural landscape of the future. This vision considers the closing of nutrient cycles in future agricultural systems as well as taking ecosystem services and the preservation of biodiversity into account in any decision making.
In her subsequent presentation, Prof Christine Watson (Scotland’s Rural College, SRUC) also advocated diversification of agricultural systems and used practical examples to illustrate the potential of intermediate crops and perennial plants. In the following panel discussion Prof. Tilman Brück (IGZ) added the urban perspective of agricultural production, which is the focus of the project food4future. The socio-economist also made it clear that above all, comprehensive legal framework conditions for climate protection and also for safe food production in new forms are needed and that consumers as a whole play a key role in the transformation process.
A recurring motive in the panelists' argumentation was also that better exchange, better communication, and collaborative, holistic and creative approaches are needed for the sustainable transformation of agricultural systems.
Final statements of the panelists.
© Agrarsysteme der Zukunft
In the second part of the workshop, Christian Huyghe (Scientific Director Agricultural, INRAE) gave insights into the future strategic orientation of the newly founded National Research Institute for Agricultural, Food and Environmental Research in France. He emphasized that besides a close partnership with industry, a strong exchange with society in the innovation processe is important.
Prof Edeltraud Günther (Director of UNU-FLORES) then highlighted the opportunities for new business models in agriculture, which can be effectively stimulated by including the external costs of agricultural systems.
With the "Agricultural Systems of the Future"-project GreenGrass, coordinator Prof. Johannes Isselstein (University of Göttingen) presented in an impulse statement the vision for another agricultural system of the future.
The panel of the second session continued the discussion in the afternoon.
The aim is to use intelligent farming technologies to make grazing animal husbandry attractive again and to preserve grassland areas. Dr. Sandra Schwindenhammer (University of Giessen) presented a different approach for the food production of the future – the SUSKULT project. This project focuses with the development of a sustainable cultivation system for food in metropolitan regions, based on the recovery of nutrients from wastewater from sewage treatment plants.
In the following discussion, the importance of participatory approaches in innovation processes was intensively debated. The participants agreed that "living labs" as a new form of cooperation between science and civil society, in which mutual learning is in the foreground, are indispensable for a successful and sustainable transformation process.