Day 4: How can a chocolate bar improve agricultural development?

Hosting such an intercultural Plant Protection Congress in Germny, it seems to be obligatory to focus on international relations concerning crop protection topics. The main aim of crop protection is improving the quality of life either in a direct or indirect way. We learned from today’s keynote speaker Stephan Krall, German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ), that about 795 million people are suffering from chronic hunger and that two billion people are affected by micronutrient deficiencies. As an example, Stephan Krall illustrated that his institution GIZ collaborates with some West African countries to promote cocoa production. This region is the most important cocoa source worldwide and ensures a stable income for farmers. When GIZ noticed, that cocoa growing farmers also grow other crops such as maize and cassava for their own food supply, the corporation started to support and train farmers also in managing these crops. Thereby, the popularity of chocolate and other cocoa products indirectly affected agricultural development positively in that area. However, this does not always seem to be the case. Mr. Kambou from Burkina Faso mentioned that in his country agriculture itself needs to be protected since most people now are trying to search for gold to gain quick money which leads to a neglect of food production and finally to hunger in this region of Africa.

As the GIZ work seemed to be very exciting, we wanted to know more about it, as well as how we as young scientists could support improving quality of life throughout the world via crop protection. Therefore, we interviewed Dr. Krall, Dr. Jörg Lohmann and Tanja Thekla Pickardt (GIZ).

Junior Scientists: What is the role of science in developing extension programs?

Pickardt & Lohmann: First of all the role of science is to work with private extension services to coach trainers to work in foreign countries and give advices to farmers. The role of science in developing extension programs has recently changed from research for development into research in development. Linear science forgetting the practical work causes more damage than help. Finally, extension services influence the research to be more practical.

Junior Scientists: Mr. Ketelaar (Bangkok) mentioned in his abstract that the most hazardous pesticides must be eliminated and that there is a need for environment-friendly alternatives. In addition, organic food seems to be trendy in Germany. Is this opinion also representing the view of Asian population? Do you think that there is a general tendency in the world toward organic food?

Pickardt & Lohmann: So if you think about the growing world population, especially in developing countries, organic production is not necessarily an alternative for everything. It depends very much on the place where you want to produce. For us organic agriculture is good and it is supported, but it is not the only way to produce. We have to value organic agriculture in a broader way. If mineral fertilizers and pesticides are used in an appropriate way, food can be produced in a sustainable manner. We have to find something between providing the population with food on the one hand and conserving the environment on the other hand.

Junior Scientists: Do you think that the misconception towards crop protection in Germany is also wide spread in developing countries?

Krall: There is a broad spectrum of developing countries between one has to differentiate. In some African countries for instance, there is a lack of plant protection and fertilization. In such countries it is not always wise to supply farmers with pesticides as they are not trained to use them and thereby their availability could be dangerous for people’s health. In various other countries, pesticides are applied but they are not used in the prescribed manner. In such countries, training people seems to be the better option than switching to organic farming.

Junior Scientists: There are a lot of conference contributions from developing countries that deal with biocontrol agents. Do you have any suggestions concerning this strong demand? Did it increase in the last few years?

Pickardt & Lohmann: We can verify that there are many contributions dealing with biocontrol agents. Consuming products contaminated with aflatoxin for instance, may lead to various diseases such as liver cancer. Biocontrol agents can be one approach to fight aflatoxin producing pests. (Workshop Tuesday evening, “Aflatoxin Prevention in Sub Saharan Africa- Challenges and Practical Experience”). Organic farming is not always cheaper, not always easier, but can be an opportunity.

Junior Scientists: Transfer of knowledge between research and practical farm work seems to be problematic in many regions. What do you suggest to improve this problem?

Pickardt & Lohmann: First of all, research findings often end with conclusions directed to other scientists lacking the information relevant for practical application (farmers). All agricultural actors are playing a role and therefore all players in innovation systems need to be considered. A good example for supporting knowledge transfer is the school for innovation, which improves the daily living conditions in Africa. For developed countries the value of an innovation might not be significant, but it could be a solution for developing regions. Keep this in mind!

Junior Scientists: How can young scientists contribute to a better understanding of crop protection in society and support solving actual and practical issues?

Krall, Pickardt & Lohmann: The point is to be open-minded and to get your own impressions. Furthermore, practical development cooperations and NGO’s are important to break narrow-minded opinions. If this is successful then we can get rid of the DDT burden for example. It is your turn (i.e. Junior Scientists) to come up with new opportunities, your time to change things, your time to be open minded. Talking to people from the society to clarify some misunderstandings is very important!

Junior Scientists: If we, as young scientists, want to support international interaction, how could we accomplish this? What would be the first step?

Krall, Pickardt & Lohmann: Work for GIZ ;). Our suggestions would be to join international student organisations, keeping contact to international partner universities and participating in big international conferences like the IPPC or the Tropentag to make your own experience!
Coming back to that chocolate bar story: The Mars company is very interested in producing a nice and tasty chocolate bar. For achieving this, they support ongoing research on rice - so in a wider understanding: A chocolate bar did indirectly improve agricultural development. By the way, the GIZ offers opportunities for internships and theses for young scientists!

Junior Scientists: The next IPPC in 2019 will take place in Hyderabad, India, with the topic “Crop protection to outsmart climate change for food security and environmental conservation”. Since India started to tackle the problem by a national action plan on climate change (NAPCC). Is this a good opportunity for the country to get support and more attention?

Pickardt & Lohmann: What we have to keep in mind is that on one hand it is very expensive for a country to hold an international conference like this, but on the other hand it is a great chance and opportunity for India to get together all the different and international researchers. India can present its problems and approaches, which might be a good opportunity to get support and attention. In addition, India is one of the hotspots affected by climate change. Finally, maybe the approaches that India itself has developed might surprise the most.

Junior Scientists: Thank you for your time and the nice exchange!

Note: The interview does not reflect the interviewers answers word-for-word, but it rather summarizes their main statements.

Later that day a Scientific Networking Meeting took place, in which different representatives of scientific associations took part. We were curious what participants would answer to the question in which way the IPPC can contribute to improve food security. Kindly, Annemarie Breukers from the University of Wageningen (NL) expressed her personal opinion that the most important thing about such a congress is to bring all the people together and to get the opportunity to build up personal contacts. The theoretical scientific information can always be gathered at home behind the desk she said, but it is about exchanging personal experiences and thereby to fill the gap between theory and practice.

Blog was written by Katrin and Rania (Student Reporters DPG). Fotos were taken by Philip Jarkusch (Conventus) and Sebastian Streit (Student Reporter DPG).

Day 3 of the IPPC, Berlin 2015 focused on the state of the art in integrative and precision farming. As today’s plenary keynote speaker Myron P. Zalucki, professor at the University of Queensland, gave the initial talk. His basic and applied research focuses on plant-pathogen interactions, in particular on Lepidoptera

In his talk “Landscapes, genetically modified crops and climate change: Whither IPM?” he addressed the topic of integration and precision in two case studies, Helicoverpa management in cotton and Plutella xylostella in brassica vegetables in Australia. The cost and usage of plant protection agents in Australia is increasing while agriculture is facing a drastic change in environmental conditions, not only by the ongoing climate change. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare for new pest control scenarios. Further on, he highlighted a repetitive problematic procedure: when spraying fails, risk management is being conducted, followed by returning to the old practices, which initially caused the problem. Of particular interest was his finding, that the introduction of GMO cotton significantly affected the North American population of monarch butterflies, as a side effect. His talk clearly indicated the need to be aware of upcoming changes in plant protection induced by the ongoing change of the environmental conditions.

Subsequent to his opening speech, we were given the exceptional opportunity to interview Prof. Zaluki for the IPPC student-reporter blog:

Junior Scientists:
The slogan of this years´ IPPC is „Mission possible - Food for all through appropriate plant protection“. Do you think IPM strategies are a promising approach to achieve this goal - even in terms of climate change - and why?
Myron Zalucki:
IPM is an approach for pest management, its idea is to minimize the pest pressure and maximize yields without disrupting life, environment and universe. All IPM systems have to be aware of the valuable impacts of climate - in some parts of the world even more than in others. It´s a system that always has to adapt to the given circumstances, because agriculture is always developing.
Indeed, food security is the major goal to achieve in future - therefore agricultural production systems are one part, as well as efficient political systems to ensure that those systems are admitted and can be applied.
Junior Scientists:
Where might be limitations of IPM?
Myron Zalucki:
The limitation of any approach is always its implementation. The issue is how do we change the way people approach agriculture and management, so that they see a benefit in doing things differently.
Junior Scientists:
Which steps are most important to take within the implementation of IPM all over the world?
Myron Zalucki:
Encourage education - the ability to question knowledge - is to mention first, as well as the obligation to get researchers and research institutes more involved with local farmers to really detect the problems they are faced with. Other aspects are changes in politics and industry. The problem in politics is that it´s too opinion-driven and short-term for extensive agricultural changes, that take longer periods to be established effectively.
Junior Scientists:
Do you assume that todays plant protection practices are able to adequately monitor, identify and react on alternating pest situations induced by a change of the environment? That is what you do, but is that also generally done?
Myron Zalucki:
Growers in the field that detect unknown pests/diseases will alert researchers of these changes. Afterwards people can map changes over the years and create huge databases, which I generally would advice. In addition to this, we also need policy makers, who enable new research projects.
Junior Scientists:
In your talk you brought the example of GMO´s introduced in the cotton belt in the US resulting in a decrease of Monarch butterflies. Are we capable of identifying changes and their putative effects on this scale?
Myron Zalucki:
The sad part is we really should have been able to foresee this ahead of time, but we didn’t. That is one of the big challenges for researchers and policy makers. When a new technique to cope with diseases is established, we have to think about the effects it has. A measure of how good science is, is whether it can make predictions over time or not. We have to keep this in regard for future projects.
From Myron Zalucki´s talk and the interview with him it became clear, that we need to adapt to a changing world, changing people, landscapes and agriculture. To really progress, we have to be open-minded regarding revolutionary techniques that could help us to ensure food security on earth and in the same way pay enough attention to possible risks that might come with these techniques.
Day 3 offered a great set of plenary sessions, making the choice which to visit more than difficult. Here we present you our today’s menu of ongoing research in Integrated Plant Protection:

Precision farming:
The precision farming session 2015 gave us an overview about the current focus of spray application research. Jens Karl Wegener from JKI addressed application problems in vertical crops, such as streaking. He presented the individual influence of nozzle type, nozzle to target area-distance, air assistance and application pressure, underlining that all these parameters interact. Tanja Pelzer, from JKI, was addressing the goal of the national action plan for sustainable use of plant protection agents, by her research on optimizing gap detection and switching system in grapes. Herein, proceedings in sensor technologies provide promising perspectives. Stefan Kiefer from Amazone initially introduced us into the influences of dewfall on spray applications, correlating lower levels of humidity with decrease spray application efficacy. His results display differential new situations, thus humidity levels within 24 hours.
Disease monitoring:
The very basis of a successful pest control is an efficient disease monitoring, according to the actual state of the art. Here we achieved great insights into current high-tech approaches, involving hyperspectral imaging, IR-thermography and unmanned aerial vehicles. At this point agriculture forms a brilliant conjunction with modern technologies. Disease distributions in the field are heterogeneous. In this respect Erich-Christian Oerke provided a detailed overview about actual sensor technics, outlining method specific capabilities and limitations.

Host-pathogen interactions differ in time and space, resulting in distinct hyper spectral signatures of diseased plants. This enables Anne-Katrin Mahlein to use Hyperspectral imaging for identification and quantification of different leaf diseases such as net blotch, rust and powdery mildews in barley. Additionally, Nadja Arens demonstrated how Cercospora beticola infections can be identified by making use of the differential leaf metabolism. Afterwards, Ali al Masri presented his IR-thermography studies, thus measuring the surface temperature of objects. This approach is capable of detecting different Fusarium ssp. in early and late infection stages. Last but not least, Luis Martins presented how model airplanes can be used to observe the pest situation in chestnut trees in large areas.
After a remarkable day as student reporters at the IPPC in Berlin 2015, we´re now looking forward to give the day a perfect end in networking with you at the dinner of the social evening.
Best regards,
Verena & Roman


Pictures were taken by Philipp Jarkusch (Conventus)

Welcome to the World Café
On Tuesday, the DPG Junior Scientists invited to a World Café round table discussion at the IPPC 2015. Participants from all over the world came together and joined on three different tables, each table representing a different topic related to plant protection. After introducing themselves they exchanged their opinions on the specific topic. When time was over after 15 minutes, they had to move on to the next table/topic. Marlene and Alexander hosted the discussion on the first topic addressing the role of Junior Scientists in future plant protection. The young scientist described their own actual situation and difficulties they are facing day by day and in general. Junior Scientists, especially from developing countries, stated that it is difficult to get traveling funds to participate in international conferences. However, the continuous communication between international colleagues and the establishment of networks was seen as very important. According to a young scientist it is very helpful to have a mentor who supports you and introduces you into existing networks. The participants whished that the contact persist beyond the time of a conference. New media platforms may provide a good opportunity to ensure a lasting exchange.

Critically discussed was the idea that young scientists have to be flexible in their way and should be able to adapt to unfamiliar research fields even if they are not of their own interest. Some stated that you will grow into it after a while. Others advocated that you will only give your very best and achieve extraordinary results when you love what you are doing. In that case, you may have to wait and search a little bit longer to find such a optimum job/positions but it is worth. “Never give up!”

The opinion, that there is quite a lot good research in plant protection all over the world was broadly accepted, but according to many participants, future food security can only be achieved with more solution orientated results which are practicable for farmers. In addition, innovative and individual research may only be possible with reliable and continuous financial support and with less pressure to publish.

The second round table discussed quite controversially the use of synthetic plant protection agents. This discussion was led by Sabine and Roman. Most participants agreed that it is not possible to secure food for all without synthetic plant protection agents, but the goal still should be to reduce its use to a minimum. However, yield and quality is important for farmers. The research on efficient biocontrol agents and the possibility to combine them with chemical control agents was seen very important. The realization of IPM strategies was mentioned often and the education of farmers as basis for adapting IPM in the long term.

Lyhlea Metha said (1999) "The new role of World Bank is supposed to include not only transfer capital to developing countries but also to close the gaps that exist in the level of knowledge". This was the opening statement for the world café with the third topic: “Global food security through knowledge exchange: fact or fantasy”. The participants were mostly international and their contributions in this meeting met their need which made the discussion very important.

One answer I found of great importance was: We do need to omit the political borders when we consider knowledge exchange as very important factor for global food security especially in the case of developing countries (participant from Pakistan). Most of the participants thought and insisted on the language as a very important issue for knowledge exchange. There has been one suggestion to overcome the language barrier: building an organization by the help of the UN to translate the recent knowledge to the most important languages like English, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese. There has been a very important contribution from a participant from Germany, who recommended to build up a mechanism to connect the organization to each other in order to avoid the overlapping in researches and reduce the expenditures on this regards. Another participants insisted on the importance of sharing the knowledge of the negative results and she believed that these will be of great importance in order to save costs and the efforts. One scientist from India mentioned that facilitating the accessibility to internet and supporting social media in developing countries as a facility of knowledge exchange is very important. Many European participants insisted on organizing trainings and sending experts to developing countries as an optimal facility for knowledge exchange. A woman from the Netherlands recommended to promote the current situation of knowledge exchange through organization already involved in this task like:
http://www.isaaa.org
http://www.cimmyt.org/en/projects/water-efficient-maize-for-africa-wema-phase-ii
http://ipbo.vib-ugent.be

In the end, many thanks for the great participation and sorry for those who did not find their contribution in the current report.

Ali Al Masri and Marlene Leucker

Day 2: Tradition and Innovation

The second day of the International Plant Congress 2015 in Berlin was incented by the slogan, Tradition & Innovation. The day startet with Patrick Schweizer, an expert in Biotechnology, as a keynote speaker with impressive information about functional genomics approaches for durable pathogen resistance. His work reveals astonishing examples of the innovative character of plant protection. Nevertheless, it also became clear in this section that besides genetic resources, traditional breeding strategies still contribute significantly to durable crop protection.

As a new tool to bring people together, the Junior Scientists of the German Scientific Society for Plant Protection and Plant Health initiated a World Café to discuss three questions, each within 20 minutes:
I. What is the role of junior scientists in future plant protection- revolution or conservation?
II. A world without synthetic plant protection agents – future or fiction?
III. Global food security through knowledge exchange – fact or fantasy?

This lively round-table discussion resulted in a possible headline in relevant newspapers that could sound like:
„...Young scientists will revolutionize plant protection with synthetic plant protection agents and knowledge exchange ...“

From the World Café it became clear that knowledge transfer and networking across disciplines are the key issues to develop future plant protection strategies. Those key issues were also emphasized by Mr. Geoff Norton, the President of the International Association of the Plant Protection Sciences (IAPPS). We had the chance to meet Geoff Norton for a interview.

Interview:
Junior Scientists:
How important is it for researchers and stakeholders to link tradition and innovation?

Geoff Norton:
Wow, that is a big issue. I think that there is not enough done. The importance is the understanding of the full dimensions of the problem. So, an Entomologist would see the insect problem, who works on population dynamics in detail but he would ignore what the farmers would do and are interested in. It is important to identify research priorities in terms of what the problem is. In terms of innovation, they have to take place like smartphones. But the important thing is to identify of how does that innovation fit? There are only very few people, who are able to do so. That´s a big issue. In Australia for example, a lot of people are working in plant protection go into molecular. That´s the new thing because of it’s high profile; working in the field is not seen as attractive. There are less people going into the field and can identify pest, diseases and weeds.

Junior Scientist:
What is the future challenge for plant protection worldwide?

Geoff Norton:
This is a big question. The integration of how thing are changing. For example climate change. How flexible can we be in terms of changing scenarios and funding? Flexibility is the key thing in the future. Farmers must be flexible, if there are new problems arising.

Junior Scientist:
What kind of output do you expect from the IPPC?

Geoff Norton:
Well, a better understanding of the multidiscipline complexity. A lot of people spending a lot of research time working out monitoring techniques but when you actually looking at what is happening, there is very little happening in terms of scouting. Well, it all goes back to the integration of the very specific topics to understand the whole systems of agriculture.

Junior Scientist:
What would you recommend to young researchers in their early steps of their career?

Geoff Norton:
First, what they are interested in the most. What they get funding for. Well, I´d like to solve the real problems. There is quite a lot of work that is under the plant protection label, which probably it too theoretical. But finding out what the real problems are. I got a lot of satisfaction, when working on real problems rather than theoretical problems. The theory of ecology is one thing but practical experience in your research field is important.

Inspired by the statement of Geoff Norton to solve the big problems by networking we wanted to know what visitors expect from the conference.
We met Yeriko Obregon (33) from Mexico. He was impressed by the IPPC presenting a very brought and high standard in technological aspects covering all aspects in plant protection, maybe the highest technology on the world. That is the reason why he visited this conference to transfer his knowledge. His research is about herbicides, Yeriko visited Europe for the first time. He is planning a city tour after the congress to explore Germany.

We also met people from Kenya, Burkina Faso, Indonesia and Marocco. All of them focused on networking to establish research cooperation in the context of non-chemical control options. They argued that the big problems could only be solved in a multidisciplinary manner.

We hope you enjoyed the second day of the conference and learned about the opportunities to link between traditional and innovational plant protection.

Best regards,
Heike & Sabine

Food Security – The Role of Plant Protection

If we talk about Food security, we also have to talk about Plant Protection.
In the Workshop „Food Security - the Role of Plant Protection“ of the 18. International Plant Protection Congress (IPPC) ten people of important institutions from eight countries presented their work and role in Plant Protection. The chairman of the workshop, the entomologist Elvis A. Heinrichs from the University of Nebraska (USA) guided this interesting and really important workshop.
The first speaker, J. E. Bowman from the United States Agency of International Development (USAID), presented the role of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in USAID´s “Feed the Future” initiative. “Feed the Future” is an U.S. Government leadership to fight global hunger and improve food security in countries of Africa, Asia and Central America. The “Feed the Future” agencies work hand-in-hand with partner countries to develop their agricultural sector and the IPM plays an important role. IPM means to decrease or eliminate the need for expensive agro-chemical inputs, while maintaining or increasing yields, enhance environmental sustainability, but also to improve the farmer`’s income. IPM tools like insect/plant hormones, biopesticides, precision pest modeling at farm level, and broader spatio-temporal modeling at landscape scale can be combined to achieve maximum impact in agroecological production zones. “Feed the Future” will be supported by U.S. universities, National and International Research Centers, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the local and international private sector.

Marlene Diekmann from the German GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) presented projects currently funded by GIZ which play a role in Food security and Integrated Pest Management.
Hari Sharma from International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT/India) explained effects of global warming and climate change on insect pests, crop pests, plant resistance, pest management and bioefficacy of insecticides. The global change will engineer a change in the relative composition of herbivores and carnivores. And disrupt the balance between the insect pests and the natural enemies. Global warming may results in breakdown of resistance to certain insect pests. The relative efficacy of bio-pesticides, natural plant products and synthetic pesticides will also change as a result of climate change. There is a need to have a concerted look at the effects of climate change on IPM technologies, and devise appropriate strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change on crop production and food security.
H.R. Macauly, General Director of the African research organization “AfricaRice” presented the role of food security in Sub-Sahara Africa and the development in the rice production.
Zhou Xueping from the Institute of Plant Pathology at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science gave an overview of the most important plant diseases and insect pests and the distribution in China. Overusing of pesticides caused seriously problems in China. Pesticide contaminated soils, crops and a decreasing biodiversity induces China to a national strategic plan to reduce pesticides.
CropLife International is a global trade association which represents the interests of the leading pesticide and plant science companies. K. Jones, the Director of CropLife, presented their work to food security. Food security means also a proper handling with pesticides. CropLife is focused on training to the proper use of pesticides.

J.W. Ketelaar from the Federal Agricultural Organization (FAO/Thailand) presented “Save and growth – A policymakers guide to the sustainable intensification of smallholder crop protection”.

Dr. Bilal Khan from the Department of Entomology of the University of Agriculture in Pakistan described a new predatory mite species of the genus Agistemus (A. burewalaensis) as a bio-control agent in Pakistan.
Dr. Karim Maredia from Michigan State University (USA) presented different programs for the education about food global food security at U.S. Universities.
T. Walter from the “Identification Technology Program” (Colorado/USA) and G. Norton from the Universty of Queensland (Australia) presented different digital technologies for pest identification and diagnosis.

Day 1: Challenges
“Food for all through appropriate plant protection”, this is the key phrase under which today the international plant protection congress 2015 opens its gates in Berlin.

Since the last time the IPPC took place in Germany, nearly 60 years ago in Hamburg, the World has changed drastically. In the last decades there have been many achievements in the area of agricultural science and crop protection, just to mention the “green revolution”, technical development in machinery, fertilizers and pesticides and last but not least the carving of Integrated Pest Management standards. Reporting about an international plant protection congress without mentioning future challenges in plant protection is like talking about pizza without mentioning Italy – thus we would like all of you to welcome to the first report of IPPC 2015.

With a continuously growing world population that already passed the seven billion mark comes a growing demand of food. Not only the pure number of humans contributes to this, also the change of diets to higher quality food and more meat in countries with rising life standards does its part. On the other side there are factors that impair the production of food such as continuous change of the climate, erosion and desertification of soils or the sealing of arable land with streets or buildings. This means that the production on the available arable land needs to be maximized. Here crop protection plays a major role as we still face average losses of 10 to 15% in yield alone due to diseases in plants as Prof. Clayton Hollier points out in the first talk of the day. If we add the losses caused by weeds and pests the overall importance of appropriate plant protection becomes even more evidend.
However appropriate plant protection is facing several drawbacks, for example there are decreasing numbers of students and PhD graduates in this specific area. Plant protection as an “Applied Science” links fundamental research with the development of new technologies for a better plant health. Within this respect, Susanne Weigand demands immediate action and cooperation between governments, companies and universities to ensure the education of young people to keep the area of “Applied Sciences” alive. This attention has to be gained if it is up to Per Pinstrup-Andersen. In his keynote speech, he pointed out three priorities for future action: Large-scale investments in rural infrastructure, expansion in public investment in agricultural research and enhanced policy incentives for the private sector to invest in sustainable agriculture. After finishing his presentation, he gave us the great opportunity to interview him.

Interview:
Junior Scientists: Dear Mr. Pinstrup-Andersen, thank you very much for your clear and highly informative talk. It gave a vivid overview about food security and what it takes to improve it. An often-discussed topic in this regard is food distribution, which you have also shown in your presentation. Is food distribution indeed a big challenge? From your point of view, is this issue increasing or decreasing?

Per Pinstrup-Andersen: The big problem is that many people have too food much and many people have too little. In theory but not in practice, food could be moved from those having too much to those who have too little. However, this does not solve the actual problems. The real problem is poverty and low productivity in smallholder agriculture. Farmer living in low income countries need to increase their yields and incomes to elevate their supply and improve their own food security. Higher productivity in poor countries will moreover decrease prices for food as the unit cost of production decreases. We already know this occurred during the green revolution - people could suddenly allow themselves things like sending their children to school or building houses. Production should therefore be increased wherever possible. This does not mean that we do not need trade. Some parts in the world just cannot produce what they need: It would for instance be ineffective for Denmark to produce bananas as they can be produced somewhere else more efficiently. On the other hand, Singapore imports virtually all its food. However, that is fine as they have other income sources. Whether it is feasible or not depends on the country and the situation in the country.

Junior Scientists: You have stressed the need for biotechnologies as part of a widespread solution to achieve food security. We are facing serious protest against new biotechnologies in European countries. How can we create a more open-minded, a less ideology-driven view on these techniques?

Per Pinstrup-Andersen: Europe will not starve if it fails to introduce modern techniques into agriculture. We can afford to pay what it costs to produce food using traditional means. Still, Europe is becoming non-competitive and both farmers and consumers are foregoing opportunities for economic and food security gains. It will be difficult to produce food at lower costs while protecting the environment if it refuses to adopt modern sciences. I recently discovered an advertisement for Himalayan salt. The label on it said that it does not contain GMO. Guess which salt was sold the most: Indeed the salt with the label. I am worried about the widespread ignorance about basic biology. GMOs in salt?? Not likely! We have to be careful that people do not develop a fear against anything modern used in agriculture. Using GMOs has been studied in detail. These results were recently described in a meta-analysis by my college Matin Qaim showing very strong positive effects using GMO. We need to get the media involved in our research in the upcoming years to inform the public.

Junior Scientists: In your life, you have achieved a lot of things young scientists can only dream of. What would you recommend to young people? What was your motivation back then when you were a student?

Per Pinstrup-Andersen: I don’t have a high school degree. I left school after seventh grade and worked on farms for a number of year. Then I went to the university. But it was never my intention to go into academia. My feeling is, that if you want to be a good scientist, you should spend time outside academia to accumulate experiences. One thing that helped me a lot was that I had mentors along the way- people, who believed in me and opened doors for me. I am very thankful for that and I try to open doors for young people. Equally important: You have to work like hell.

Junior Scientists: How much do you value the international exchange during a congress like the IPPC?

Per Pinstrup-Andersen: I appreciate the opportunity to sit down and to talk and discuss to people from all over the world. Of course, you can read a lot about the work of others in the journals. But networking and knowledge sharing in a personal context is much more convincing. Informal communication is very important. You can for example discuss new project ideas or collect information, which has not been published yet.

Junior Scientist: We’d like to thank you very much for your time and for answering our questions. We wish you an inspiring and pleasant stay in Berlin.

Note: The interview does not reflect Mr. Pinstrup-Andersen’s answer word-for-word but it rather summarizes the main statements of him.

During the afternoon, we attended several talks. We listened carefully and got an insight into interesting topics from diverse fields. Beginning with new insecticides over the use of CO2 as an attractant for wireworms, the applications of RNAi, pest and diseases in pastures Down Under, the influence of nitrogen on Fusarium in barley or the use of compost on soil borne diseases - plant protection offers a wide range of fascinating research areas.

We hope you enjoyed the first day of IPPC just as much as we did. Seeing people from all over the world learning from each other and discussing about current and future plant protec-tion appears to create a very productive and creative atmosphere. May this congress contin-ue as today with inspiring and informative talks, presentations, posters and, most importantly, fruitful discussion and personal conversations within the next days. Please find some impres-sions of the day looking through the pictures.
We hope you liked today’s report. If so, and for any other reasons, please leave a comment below. We would be more than happy to welcome you again tomorrow with Heike and Sabine reporting about Tuesday’s occurrences. Good Night!
Sebastian Streit & Alexander Pfaff

Pictures were taken by Philipp Jarkusch (Conventus) and Sebastian Streit (Student Reporter DPG)

Let´s start with the first post of Sebastian & Alexander:)

Hello,
We are Marlene Leucker and Ali Al Masri, Ph.D students at the department of Plant Diseases and Plant Protection at the University of Bonn. We are both engaged in proximal sensing of plant - pathogen interactions. Marlene is the Speaker of DPG Junior Scientists and will be happy to see you in the World Café as moderator of the topic: “The role of junior scientists in future plant protection – revolution or conservation?” Ali is pleased to moderate the discussion of “Global food security through knowledge exchange – fact or fantasy?”. We look forward to reporting on your innovative contributions.

Hello,
we are Rania Saleh (28) from the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen and Katrin Scherer (25) from the University of Bonn. Rania is trying to understand the interaction happening between Rapeseed and its pathogen Verticillium longisporum in her PhD project. Katrin is studying in Master Program Plant Science with the focus on Plant Protection and Phytomedicine. We are pleased to have the opportunity to participate as student reporters to give you some insight into the Thursday’s topic “Social Aspects and Co-operations”. See you at the IPPC on Thursday!

We are Verena Schieritz (24) and Roman Blümel (29) from University of Bonn, and we are looking forward to report on the IPPC on Wednesday, with the focus on opportunities of Integrated Pest Management. At University of Bonn, Verena is studying Molecular Crop Science and currently working on her Master thesis about herbicide resistant blackgrass. Roman is researching the effects of exogenous amino acid applications on nematodes, his PhD project at the Institute of Molecular Phytomedicine. Moreover, Roman is happy to host DPG-youth IPPC 2015 Berlin „world cafe“ discussion: “A world without synthetic plant protection agents – future or fiction?” We hope to see you there!

We, namely Heike Pannwitt (30) and Sabine Andert (27) are happy to report about the news from the IPPC on Tuesday. As PhD students we are working in the Group Crop Health at the University of Rostock in Germany. Here, Heike is testing the potential of seed predators in agroecosystems for their weed control and Sabine investigates plant protection intensities in different model regions in Germany. We will see each other at the IPPC on Tuesday.

Hello,
we are Sebastian Streit (25) and Alexander Pfaff (25). Both of us are studying in different master programs at Georg-August-University of Göttingen. Currently, we are working on our master theses. Sebastian investigates the impact of drought stress and potassium fertilisation on Fusarium stem base infestation of winter wheat caused by Fusarium culmorum. Alexander is trying to identify responsible fungi for mycotoxin contaminations in amaranth via RT-PCR. We are pleased to report about IPPC’s occurrences on Monday. See you soon!

We are happy to present you the IPPC student reporters and the moderators of the IPPC World Café.