From 10 to 15 June, the DCZ organized an excursion and workshops for German and Chinese agrobiodiversity experts in Berlin and Brandenburg. The activity was part of the project “Sustainable use and management of agrobiodiversity as a contribution to the transformation to climate change resilient food systems and innovative development in rural regions”, which is being implemented within the framework of the Innovation and Transformation Dialogue funded by the German Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture (BMEL).
Discussing the role of agrobiodiversity in the bilateral cooperation program of Germany's agriculture ministry
The excursion set off with a meeting at the premises of the German Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture (BMEL) in Berlin. Following an introduction to BMEL’s priorities in international cooperation by ministry representatives Mr. Dieter Goertz and Ms. Svenja Fuhrmann, Prof. Andrea Krähmer, Director of the Institute for Ecological Chemistry at Julius Kühn Institute (JKI), gave a keynote speech on agroecology. Agroecology is one of the key topics that the BMEL would like to focus more on in international cooperation.
The delegation then had the opportunity to present the ongoing DCZ project on agrobiodiversity and to discuss with the BMEL representatives how the agrobiodiversity network could be integrated into future Sino-German projects.
Visit to Weltacker (global field) in Berlin Pankow
The two-day program in Berlin focused in particular on educational projects that bring the topic of nutrition and biodiversity to life for city dwellers. In the Botanical People’s Garden (Botanischer Volksgarten) in Berlin Pankow, network member Benny Härlin from the Foundation for Future Farming (Zukunftsstiftung Landwirtschaft) presented the Weltacker (global field) project. The global field presents the proportional distribution of important agricultural crops on an area of 2000 m2—the average area of arable land available for each person on the planet.
Domäne Dahlem: building value chains based on crop diversity
Domäne Dahlem in the south of Berlin, which was visited the following day, is a former manor where agriculture has been practiced for almost 800 years. Today the main purpose of the farm is to introduce city dwellers to agricultural traditions. The farm is certified for organic farming. It is also a member of the VERN network (Association for Conservation and Recultivation of Crops) and grows old varieties and landraces of grains, vegetables and fruits. These are on sale in the organic food store attached to the farm.
Ex-situ conservation at Dahlem Seed Bank
This was followed by a visit to the Dahlem Seed Bank in the nearby Berlin Botanical Garden. Under the guidance of curator Elke Zippel, the group had the opportunity to visit one of the oldest gene banks for wild plants, which currently holds a collection of more than 6,000 varieties, many of them endangered species. Many of the rare plant species collected here are threatened by extinction, particularly due to intensive agriculture and monocultures.
Urban gardening and agrobiodiversity
In the afternoon, the group visited the Prinzessinnengarten Kollektiv (princess garden collective), an urban gardening project that is being created on a disused cemetery in Berlin Neukölln with the support of the Berlin Program for Sustainable Development (BENE). The project offers residents from the neighborhood the opportunity to participate in the development of a community garden. There are also a variety of offers such as gardening advice, guided tours in German and English, and workshops on biodiversity and climate education for schools. The project gives a vivid example of how agrobiodiversity can be integrated into urban spaces.
Approaches to agrobiodiversity based on Daoist principles
“Strawberries from Beijing” was the title of a public event held in the evening by the Foundation for Future Farming (Zukunftsstiftung Landwirtschaft), where delegation member Wang Xin, an organic small-scale farmer from Beijing, shared impressive photos and presented his holistic approach to organic farming based on the philosophy of Daoism. At the event, Chang Tianle and Wan Ze’en from Beijing-based think tank Foodthink and Chuang Yufen from Farmers’ Seed Network presented their work at the event and had the opportunity to get in touch with German food activists.
Field day at Gut Wilmersdorf
On 12 June, the group traveled on to Uckermark region in Brandenburg, north east of Berlin, close to the Polish border. During the field day of the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) at organic farm Gut Wilmersdorf in the Schorfheide-Chorin biosphere reserve, there were plenty of opportunities to exchange ideas with professors and students from the university as well as local farmers. Guided tours to the university’s experimental plots included experiments with old grain varieties, grain legumes, and endangered wild field weed species. For example, researchers from HNEE are investigating the potential of growing chickpeas as an adaptation to climate change in the Uckermark region. The visitors also got to know the “Uckerbot”, a weeding robot developed by the university in collaboration with a startup specifically for organic sugar beet cultivation.
After the lunch break, there was an opportunity to learn more about balanced crop rotation in organic agriculture from Prof. Kurt Schmidke (Dresden University for Applied Technology and Economics). At the end of the field day, expert network member Rudi Vögel guided a tour of the fields of Gut Wilmersdorf, which organically farms an area of 1000 hectares and cultivates old varieties of grain such as champagne rye, among other things. In addition, Gut Wilmersdorf carries out seed propagation for VERN.
Interview with HNEE researcher Johannes Hofstätter on promoting diversity on the field
Visit to crop preservation network VERN
On 13 June, the group spent the whole day at VERN (Association for Conservation and Recultivation of Crops) in Greiffenberg near Angermünde. The association, founded in 1996, preserves around 2,000 old crops and makes them available to the general public. Employees also advise on the cultivation and preservation of old crops.
At a full-day workshop in the rooms of the old farmhouse carefully renovated by VERN, the German and Chinese experts discussed recommendations for political decision-makers. The experts identified eight fields of action (from technical aspects of maintaining resilient seed conservation, training in agro-ecological practices, the creation of fair and effective value chains for traditional varieties, to the preservation of traditional varieties as cultural assets and marketing potential for culinary arts and tourism promotion). As follow-up activity of the Germany excursion, a working group will summarize the recommendations in a policy brief. The brief will be presented and discussed further at the 10th Sino-German Agricultural Week and other international events.
In the afternoon, a staff member led a tour of the VERN’s display and propagation garden. Afterwards the group visited a small farmer in Greiffenberg who grows and markets old varieties from the VERN collection.
In the last session of the day, possible structures for the planned toolbox were discussed. So far, the network has collected more than 50 materials (technical manuals, guidelines, case studies and scientific articles) on the topic, which will be made available to interested users on an interactive platform.
Workshop and exchange at University for Sustainable Development Eberswalde (HNEE)
The following day, the group visited the University for Sustainable Development Eberswalde (HNEE). In several workshops, ideas were developed for the dissemination strategy and sustaining of the network after funding from BMEL ends by end of the year. Input lectures were given by Professor Ralf Bloch, network member and professor at the HNEE, and by Dr. Ahmed Abdelfattah, researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB), who spoke on the topic of Seed Microbiome for Conservation and Sustainable Agriculture.
Results
The workshops in China and Germany touched on topics that network members will continue to work on in the future. In the autumn, a special edition of the DCZ magazine Harvest ∙ 丰收 will be published on the topic. Besides, a policy brief will be presented at side events of international conferences such as the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 16), the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 29), and the 3rd International Agrobiodiversity Congress taking place in Kunming in April 2025.
In addition, there will be a half-day panel on the topic of agrobiodiversity at the 10th Sino-German Agricultural Week (21 to 23 October), where results from the project including the toolbox will be presented.
Other follow-on projects being planned include the establishment of a global field (Weltacker) in Beijing, a bilateral research project on soybean intercropping, and a Sino-German tofu network.
