3rd Status-Seminar of the "Agricultural Systems of the Future": Towards Transformation

The third status seminar of the BMBF funding line "Agrarsysteme der Zukunft" (Agricultural Systems of the Future) took place on 5th and 6th of October 2022. The eight consortia and the Central Coordination Office presented the progress of their work at an online conference with over 180 participants. A special focus was on the cooperation between the consortia to implement their developed transition pathways this year.

At the opening of the event, Dr Klaus-Peter Michel from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) emphasised the importance of the systemic approach of "Agrarsysteme der Zukunft", which is designed for long-term and sustainable solutions.

Dr Boelie Elzen, a transition expert from Wageningen University & Research, gave inspirational keynote speech for change in the agro-food sector. He shared insights from over 20 years of transition research in the agro-food sector. Elzen said: "The big challenges are not technological, but environmental, political and social". He further stated that the success drivers for transition are combination of different innovations ("smart combinations"), to break down transition pathways into manageable steps, to engage stakeholder in processes from the beginning and work with farmers with a frontrunner attitude.

The eight consortia presented their project progress, including the DAKIS project coordinated at the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF). Scientists complemented the presentations with in-depth insights into individual topics of their work in Young Talent Talks and Focus Talks sessions.

The two-day event concluded with an endorsement of further strategic collaboration across consortia to advance the technological and societal transition in agro-food systems. For this, the "Agrarsysteme der Zukunft" work along four transition pathways: integrative indoor production systems, sustainable land management systems, local and regional circular production systems and healthy and attractive work systems in the agricultural industry.

Professor Schreiner (IGZ) and Professor Weith (ZALF) from the Central Coordination Office concluded the importance of the event, because now concrete steps can together be taken to push the transition in the agro-food systems, beyond the individual projects goals.