06. September 2024
The Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) was well represented at this year's European Society for Agronomy (ESA) Congress in Rennes, France, from August 26 to 30. ZALF PhD student Jennifer Thompson gave a convincing presentation on mixed cultivation of soy and wheat in Germany and received the Best Oral Award with the maximum score of 100 points
At this year's congress, ZALF scientists presented a total of eleven talks and seven posters on various aspects of crop production in Germany and Europe. The main focus of the congress was on intercropping and the necessary transformation of agriculture under the pressure of climate change, declining biodiversity and the continuing need to secure the world's food supply.
"Jennifer Thompson's presentation on soy and wheat intercropping in Germany shows how innovative solutions can help make agriculture more sustainable and productive. Such approaches are crucial to meet the challenges of climate change," says Prof. Claas Nendel of ZALF. Jennifer Thompson is a PhD student in the working group “Ressource-efficient Cropping Systems” and has worked on the IPP project „Cropping system diversification to increase the resilience of farming systems (divCROP)“. The divCROP project is an integrated priority project, funded by ZALF, which deals with the question of how existing agricultural systems can be adapted to improved functional biodiversity and reduced pesticide use through diversification.
The European Society for Agronomy is a European network of plant production scientists. Its biennial congress is a central meeting point for the exchange between science and practice on issues of sustainability and productivity in the production of plant-based food, materials and energy. Prof. Claas Nendel of ZALF said goodbye as the rotating president. In two years, the Society will meet again in Tartu, Estonia, under the chairmanship of ESA President Evelin Loit-Harro.
