Preface

Dear guest,

this is to welcome you in Witzenhausen, Faculty of Ecological Agricultural Sciences, University Kassel. During DTT 2002 I wish you outstanding scientific speeches and posters, fascinating and motivating discussions, meeting old and making new friends, enjoying warm hospitality and --weather permitting-- the scenic landscape around Witzenhausen.

The subject of the conference tries to reflect the specific ecological approach of the agricultural faculty in Witzenhausen, which has an over hundred years tradition in tropical agricultural education. We would like to stimulate discussions on what is ecological, organic or sustainable agriculture, especially in the tropics and subtropics and how research can contribute to extend environment friendly production of sufficient high quality food, not forgetting economic and social aspects.

This book contains the great majority of abstracts of oral and poster presentations of DTT 2002, including the keynotes of invited speakers, who are internationally reputated and estimated representatives of their scientific subject. Full papers --as far as available-- will be published in the internet (http://papers2002.tropentag.de).

I wish you all a successful and enjoyable event, safe return to your home and I hope to meet all of you again in 2003 in Göttingen, only 35 km from here.

I will not forget to thank all the highly motivated and cooperative people, who contributed in planning and organization of the conference, especially also the extended local organizing committee. Last but not least it is indispensible to thank the generous sponsors whithout the support of whom this conference could not have been implemented.

Rüdiger Krause

Andreas Deininger, September 2002