The Plant Cultivation working group is focusing, for example, on diversifying the range of species, varieties and crops. Novel cultivation systems provide diverse foods with high-quality ingredients, accumulate carbon in the soil, fix nitrogen and thus reduce the need for synthetic N fertilisers, reduce the use of chemical pesticides and promote biodiversity. For example, large-grain legumes can be used for the production of protein-rich foods and small-grain legumes in undersown crops as well as fibre plants with multi-purpose use for human nutrition and the production of biomaterials. Agroforestry systems, for example, are being used as new cultivation systems.

Contact persons: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Cornelia Weltzien (ATB), Prof. Dr. Sonoko Bellingrath-Kimura (ZALF)