Bücher von Eric Tielkes

Tropentag is an annual international conference on food security, natural resource management and rural development. Tropentag 2017 is organised by the University of Bonn, Germany, jointly with the Council for Tropical and Subtropical Research (ATSAF e.V) in cooperation with the GIZ Advisory Service on Agricultural Research for Development (BEAF). This year¿s Conference theme is ¿Future Agriculture: social-ecological transitions and bio-cultural shifts¿.Future agriculture is by definition an emerging phenomenon. It is continuously in the making, while present visions of the future turn into history. Vast stretches of land in developing countries are being put to new uses, with new forms of governance, new ownership patterns and new forms of production. Particularly agricultural systems are undergoing drastic changes, unfolding an enormous transformative power and affecting millions of people.System-immanent attributes such as visions, aspirations, cultural specifics and production factor availability shape the response of land users to growing external pressures such as climate change, market demands, land degradation, emerging diseases and policies. In addition to such social-ecological transitions, substantial bio-cultural shifts occur and are imposed by centrally-planned establishments of large-scale intensification (or conservation) corridors and protection zones, or are associated with infrastructure development and urbanisation processes. A wide array of resulting response pathways and land use or production strategies emerge that may be beneficial for rural and urban populations, but can also lead to abandonment of land, migration and conflicts.

Large quantities of water are appropriated to produce the feed annually consumed in global livestock production. Rising concerns about increasing competition for water resources and projected increase in demand for livestock products make it imperative to look for strategies to sustainably increase livestock production, with water being one key natural resource to consider.Using a combination of different datasets, a mechanistic livestock model, and a dynamic vegetation model, we estimate the annual consumptive water use (CWU) in the global livestock sector associated with crops and fodder cultivated on cropland and grazed biomass from pastures.

Almost one billion people worldwide suffer from hunger. Another billion are malnourished. This is an unacceptable situation. By 2050, we will probably have to feed nine billion people while taking care not to overstretch our planet¿s ecological capacity. Hunger and malnutrition have many causes. One central cause is undoubtedly the fact that agricultural productivity in most developing countries is too low to give the majority of the rural poor adequate income opportunities or to ensure food security for them. This is the very factor that we need to address. So when I assumed office in 2009, I made rural development and food security a political priority of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) again, considerably increasing the Ministry¿s financial commitments in the sector. The volume of relevant commitments is now more than 700 million euros a year. This is more than 10 per cent of my Ministry¿s total budget. The Tropentag is a renowned international forum for development and agricultural research experts to share information and experience as well as knowledge. Numerous organisations and experts from a variety of fields from more than 80 countries are represented. The event provides a good networking opportunity, especially for younger experts. It is intellectual input of this kind that makes a huge difference in whether development policy and development cooperation are successful or not. So it was my pleasure to accept the role of patron for this Tropentag.

The theme for this year¿s Tropentag, ¿Agricultural development within the rural-urban continuum¿ has a very special significance. The question of how agricultural production will respond to the dramatic shift in the rural-urban continuum is not only highly relevant but also vital for the future. In developing countries, rural areas still have the highest birth rates. Therefore, even with a high rural exodus, the absolute population in these areas will experience an increase lasting far into the next decade. The size of the rural population will not start to fall until later in this century. On the other hand, cities are growing at an unprecedented rate. From the estimated global population of 9.6 billion in 2050, 70% will be urban inhabitants. Already today the demand for food from a growing urban population in the developing countries is huge. A large middle-class is forming in the cities of these countries too, with a growing appetite for better quality, high protein foods. Must this increased overall demand be primarily met by buying on world markets? Or could local agriculture provide sufficient goods to cover the growing demand? Increased urbanization offers huge opportunities for development, not only for cities but also for rural areas and for agriculture. Urbanisation gives many small farmers the opportunity to make the leap from subsistence farming to producing for urban markets. This opportunity to earn an income can, for many families in rural areas, be the decisive step away from poverty and hunger. At the same time, new forms of ¿urban agriculture¿ are also offering interesting opportunities for development in the growing cities.

Tropentag is the largest interdisciplinary conference in Europe on research in sub-/tropical agriculture, food security, natural resource management and rural development. Taking place annually, Tropentag 2019 is jointly organised by the Centre for International Rural Development at the University of Kassel and the Centre of Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use at the University of Göttingen, and takes place at the University of Kassel's main campus from 18 to 20 September 2019.