Ag Reporters

Before we get to visit to the UN and the different farms, we set up a plan. How should our story look like, who is responsible for which topic? We created a structure and this is what we came out of it. Enjoy!

Hannah Fuchs, University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhine-Sieg

The ecosystems, that the land provide, are at breaking point. "Because of land degradation we lose 23 ha every minute. It's time to start now to stop it!", says Sandrine Jauffret. As UNCCD-Advsior of the Excecutive Secretary she fights degradation including desertification, erosion, salinization, waterlogging and degradation due to livestock. "We need sustainable land management to reduce it." The UN can only be as strong as its members. Each country has to care for a healthy soil.

Photo and Interview by Andrea Bahrenberg, LZ Rheinland

Dr. Michael Hölker, CEO of Frankenforst Research Center answered a lot of questions to the Agreporters.

Our first station for the excursion is research station Frankenforst, beautifully located at the edge of the city part of Königswinter-Vinxel. Hopping out of the bus, circling around our hosts, almost everyone burst into cheers while hearing a reception with coffee and snacks awaits them – oh, of course, most importantly - with the introduction of the history and development of it – after all that’s our task here.

As we gradually got refreshed in the reception hall, our host began with the history of this research station – it dates back to 1407, and probably was named after “Francke von Vünfselden”. In its history, there´s been a long time that Frankenforst was cultivated by leaseholders. Once processed by manufacturers belonging to the post delivery zone, sold to the Prussian state and in the year of 1929, it became the research farm for the Agriculture department of university Bonn until today.

Now is Frankenforst the teaching and research station equipped with a high- tech experimental dairy farm with total about 60 dairy cows, gathering all the data to explore the animal husbandry of the future.

Li, Jinhan DW Akademie

Can you look inside a cow? Turns out you can. I was really fascinated by the fact that they implant a fistula into a cow in order to take a look into its stomach. They investigate for example how its digestion might be influenced and in course of that they also supervise its methane production – which the cows burp not fart out!

Daria Tomala, M.Sc. Technology and Innovation Communications, University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg

... by the research with the embryo´s. The lab looked from the outside as a small house for holidays but at the inside it was so well equipped. I was amazed when they told us that they could store the embryo´s for eternity. To see the manipulation of the oocytes and the different growth stations of the zygotes was so interesting. Also the experiments they are planning to knock down the gene encoding for the growth of horns seems very promising to me. I believe it will enhance animal welfare by avoiding the stress of the animals which they experience by removing the horns.

Nathalie Van Hese, Landbouwleven Belgium 

Urška Pevec, 26, grew up at a dairy farm in Slovenia. She is very interested in the future of dairy farming and the differences regarding this sector between Slovenia and Germany.


Interview by Christine Siefer: "I was very impressed by Urška, because  she really wants to help farmers in Slovenia. She knows what it feels to work hardly on a farm, to provide milk without getting enough money for that.  But instead of giving up she wants to change the situation."

Christoph and Birgit Lüpschen showed their dairy farm and biogas plant

There is no better example for efficient use of resources than to produce energy with manure. With cow dropings being more valuable than their milk in the current german market, it is important for farmers to think outside the box and harness the power of methane in every cows´ brown package they deliver on an almost hourly basis. The thick athmosphere inside the fermentation chambers are a smelly reminder that profit can be found even in the form of poo.  

Kelly Njombo, 26, from Zambia, reports, on the threats and negative impact of low milk prices on the further development of the dairy sector. It is unfortunate that despite some dairy farmers having the capacity to produce about 9,500 litres of milk annually, they are still faced with various challenges such as low milk prices and high production costs. During my one-week stay in Bonn, Germany, I had the opportunity to interview a dairy farmer in Lohmar, Dr. Christoph Lüpschen, and this is what he said…

With overproduction of milk that German dairy farmers have been registering over the last few years, the farmers are experiencing huge losses due to shortage of market. Eric Didier Karinganire from Rwanda caught up with Christoph Lübschen, German Dairy Farmer, to get views wether consumers can contribute to higher milk price and what he thinks could be the best option to solve the milk price issue..... 

... a success and I learned a lot. Not only about dairy farming, milking robots, animal welfare or how the UN contributes to the fight against global warming and how it tries to avoid land degradation and restore land but especially about the idea of a “global village”. I liked the international team and exchange about culture or language. For example I learned that in Zambia there are 72 different tribes who have their own language, about traditions in Slovenia or that crocodiles are seen as holy animals in Ghana. It was a great experience to get to know people from the other side of the world like Australia or Trinidad and Tobago and to see that despite the cultural background we have so much in common and a lot of questions and problems concerning sustainable agriculture and farming are the same in all the parts of the world. For me it was a great honor to meet all the young journalists and learn about their opinions about sustainable agriculture and see how passionate they are about it.
All in all the organization of the project went really well. There was a good spirit in the team and the communication was great. For me it was a good opportunity to improve my English skills and at the UN i got the Chance to speak a little bit French as well. In the end, like the name of UN says, we are all united and I am happy that I had the chance to find new friends all over the globe and hope to visit them soon.”

Linda Camilla Julkunen, participant of University of Applied Sciences

Participants
Andrea Bahrenberg, Germany
Eric Didier, Ruanda
Hannah Fuchs, Germany
Nathalie van Hese, Belgium
Stefan Hilfert, Germany
Zainabuh Issah, Ghana
Hansjürg Jäger, Switzerland
Linda Julkunen, Germany
Ricardo Kauffmann, Mexiko
Christoph Knichel, Germany
Jinhan Lee, China
Kelly Njombo, Sambia
Joseph Opoku, Ghana
Urska Pevec, Slovenia
Khanh Ly Tran Pung, Germany
Ricardo Rojas, Venezuela
Nils Schlieske, Germany
Christine Siefer, Germany
Daria Tomala, Germany
Sandra Gaviria Vera, Peru
Brett Worthington, Australia
Keron Bascombe, Trinidad and Tobago

Editors
Prof. Dr. Katharina Seuser, Germany
Sabine Fricke, Germany
Almuth Schellpeper, DW Akademie, International Media Studies

Supported by
VDAJ, BMEL, DW, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences 

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