(Berlin) On May 29, 2024, José Bonica Henderson, President of the Uruguayan agricultural research institute INIA (Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria), visited the JKI site in Berlin to inform himself about the research work being carried out at the Julius Kühn Institute. Bonica was accompanied by representatives of the Uruguayan Embassy in Berlin, led by H.E. Ambassador Fernando López-Fabregat. It was a return visit: a delegation led by BMEL State Secretary Claudia Müller had previously taken the President and JKI researchers to Uruguay at the end of April.
New cooperation in bee protection, remote sensing and plant ingredients in plant breeding?
In April, the focus was on the German-Uruguayan Bilateral Cooperation Program with the joint research component Soil Health and Soil Microbiome. In Berlin, JKI scientists have now presented topics that might be suitable for further cooperation.
Dr. Jens Pistorius, Head of the JKI Institute for Bee Protection, discussed the question how we can reduce risks from pesticides and pesticide residues for bees and contermination in honey.
Dr. Burkhard Golla from the JKI Institute for Strategies and Technology Assessment presented approaches in which geoinformation systems and remote sensing contribute to the protection of crops, forest protection and the greening of urban structures and support plant breeding. Head of Institute Dr. Andrea Krähmer and Dr. Torsten Meiners from the Institute of Ecological Chemistry, Plant Analysis and Stored Product Protection discussed their agroecological research in national and international context on the one hand, and the description of biological processes through the analysis of plant constituents on the other. The latter serves to create the molecular basis for innovative approaches in plant protection and thus for sustainable plant cultivation systems, which are ultimately in the common interest of both countries.
Afterwards, JKI President Prof. Dr. Frank Ordon and his guests discussed how the long-standing and fruitful cooperation can be expanded to include urgent topics of common importance - also with a view to the Uruguayan-German Agricultural Dialogue (DAUA, Diálogo Agropecuario Uruguayo-Alemán) funded by the BMEL. As a multiplier, this dialogue is intended to transport the identified topics beyond Uruguay's borders to its neighboring countries Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay and Chile.