News

When: April 24, 2025, 16:00-18:00

What is it all about?

Wet winters, dry summers - flooded fields or cracked, parched soils: extreme weather events pose ever greater challenges for agriculture. While weeks of drought endanger the harvest, sudden heavy rainfall can wash out nutrients and destroy young plants. Efficient water use is essential in vegetable cultivation in order to secure yields and conserve resources. What role can digitalization play in this? Can smart irrigation systems help to use water in a more targeted way, save costs and ensure crop quality? Or do high investments and technological dependencies stand in the way of the benefits? And what political framework conditions are actually necessary to ensure sustainable water use in organic farming?

For whom?

All farmers, consultants, scientists, students and interested parties who are committed to sustainable agriculture. Participation is free of charge, but we ask for binding registration for better planning of catering: anmeldung@agrar.uni-kassel.de

Frankenhausen expert talks

In the new series of events Frankenhäuser Fachgespräche, farmers, scientists and consultants will present their perspectives on current challenges in organic farming. We invite you to the Hessian State Domain Frankenhausen, the teaching, research and transfer center for organic agriculture and regional development of the University of Kassel. Here, on over 320 hectares, work and research is carried out on future concepts for plant cultivation, animal husbandry, biodiversity promotion and resource management - on the farm and with a range of scientific approaches including long-term trials and practical research networks.

Further key topics and dates in 2025:

03.07.2025 Focus: Climate change - problems and potentials in organic farming (all-day field day)

Further topics and dates are planned for the second half of the year.

As part of a student project, a very watchable short film about the domain was created.

"The common good economy establishes an ethical economic model.
The well-being of people and the environment becomes the primary goal of economic activity."

As part of a student project, a common good balance sheet has been drawn up for the Frankenhausen domain.
In a balance sheet for the common good, the economic success of a company is examined and evaluated according to more comprehensive criteria than monetary ones: ethical aspects as well as social cooperation in a company, fair economic and trade relations along the entire value chain, and the ecological sustainability of economic activity play a major role in the evaluation.

Based on this common good balance sheet, it is now possible to continuously work on improvement processes towards the common good at the domain.
Since 2020, the domain has been a member of Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie e.V. and thus supports the establishment of an ethical and sustainable economic model.

At the Hessian State Domain Frankenhausen, carrot cultivation is an important mainstay of agricultural production. For the marketing initiative "Bio mit Gesicht" (Organic with a Face), Ines Reinisch made a film that accompanies carrot cultivation from sowing to harvesting, storage and marketing.