A Changing Climate: How German Scientists and Farmers are Finding a Way Forward

On 12 June, at Gut Wilmersdorf, an organic farm an hour’s drive from Berlin, a group of young agricultural students and their lecturers were leading farmers and scientists through the experimental fields.

It was the annual open day for the experimental fields of the Brandenburg University of Applied Sciences Eberswalde (HNEE). Here, scientists must set aside academic jargon and let the results from the field do the talking, helping farmers optimise farm management and better manage risks. For over a decade, the greatest challenge facing German agricultural production has been climate change.

In early June, heavy rainfall triggered floods in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. In Brandenburg, where the farm is located, summer would usually have arrived by now; this year, however, temperatures have been unusually low, with daytime highs hovering around 20 degrees, punctuated by strong winds and showers. Everyone huddled into their coats, discussing the path towards agricultural climate adaptation amidst weather that felt palpably abnormal.

I. Summer Crops or Winter Crops?

As the driest region in Germany, Brandenburg is particularly affected by climate change. Local rainfall is 30% lower than the national average, at just 557 mm. A trend towards warming and drying has intensified summer droughts, severely impacting crop growth.

Yet, new opportunities are emerging. With winters becoming warmer and wetter, HNEE scientists have introduced legumes such as chickpeas, soybeans, and broad beans into the experimental fields. If these can successfully over-winter, the next step will be to breed more cold-resistant varieties.

To maximise profit and mitigate risk, farmers need to appropriately increase the variety of winter crops. Choosing the right crops for their specific farms and adjusting planting structures is exactly the discussion this open day aimed to spark.

“Let me test you: which crop is most prone to wild poppies? Does anyone know which crop broad beans rotate best with?” Professor Knut Schmickert, a rotation expert, used a few short Q&As to easily warm up the atmosphere. Holding crops freshly pulled from the field, he vividly described recent research findings to his colleagues and the farmers.

Crop rotation—the practice of alternating crops on the same plot of land—is common, such as the “rice-wheat/oilseed rape” wet-dry rotation prevalent in the Jiangnan region of China. A well-planned rotation sequence not only replenishes soil fertility but also suppresses weeds, which is particularly vital for large-scale organic production.

In the rotation systems common to the Brandenburg region, broad beans are typically summer crops, sown in spring and harvested in autumn. However, field research in recent years has shown that broad beans can over-winter locally; their robust root systems effectively absorb soil moisture, and yields have exceeded expectations.

Consequently, Professor Schmickert suggests that broad beans could be transitioned into winter crops. He proposes that local rotation systems gradually shift from the conventional “three summer, two winter” pattern to “three winter, two summer”—interspersing three winter crops with two summer crops—to better adapt to climate change.

Besides broad beans, the experimental fields are testing the adaptability of various lupin, chickpea, and soybean varieties as winter crops. These legumes not only have the potential for climate adaptation—serving as nitrogen-fixing crops or green manure to improve soil in organic farming systems—but are also expected to ride the wave of growing vegan consumption in Germany.

As plant-based diets become more mainstream, half of the German population has expressed a desire to reduce meat intake, with the vegan population growing rapidly from 100,000 in 2012 to 1.5 million in 2022.

Although traditional German cooking offers limited ways to prepare legumes directly, they can be processed into vegan products. Thus, over the past year, HNEE students compared the protein content of four soybean varieties in the experimental fields; higher protein content is more beneficial for processing and makes them easier to integrate into the vegan market.

A change in strategy to increase winter sowing has seemingly become a consensus. However, what new challenges does winter sowing bring? Which of these over-wintering crops are more cold-resistant? Do local varieties adapt better? How effective is the mixed sowing method used in mountainous areas? Scientists and farmers engaged in a spirited discussion, while we briefly left the experimental fields to tour the Gut Wilmersdorf farm.

II. Land Sharing: An Organic Farm in a Protected Area

“Look over there; the side with the wind turbines is outside the protected area.”

Our guide, agro-biodiversity expert and head of the non-profit Vern, Rudi Vogel, pointed toward the giant blades rotating slowly in the distance. This is the Schorfheide-Chorin Biosphere Reserve, part of the UN’s Man and the Biosphere (MAB) programme.

Established the year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Schorfheide-Chorin is described by Rudi as a “stroke of historical luck”. The MAB programme strives for a balance between conservation and sustainable use; nearly 80% of the reserve allows for sustainable utilisation. For instance, in the 1990s, 30% of the farmland in the area transitioned into organic farms, most of which were previously state-owned collective farms from the GDR era.

Rudi himself moved here during those transformative years. While working for the government, he was involved in the privatisation of the collective farms within the reserve. The farm we were visiting once spanned over 2,000 hectares, combining crops and livestock; the old dairy sheds were built right at the entrance of the farm.

After privatisation, livestock production was gradually phased out due to the high cost of investment and a lack of skilled personnel. Meanwhile, 1,100 hectares became an organic grain farm—what is now Gut Wilmersdorf.

“As an organic farm without integrated crop and livestock production, our challenge is ensuring the long-term supply of nutrients to the soil.” This is a statement from the farm’s website. In recent years, the average annual temperature in northern Germany has risen from 8.3°C to 9.5°C, further heightening the sense of urgency at Gut Wilmersdorf.

In 2005, the farm formally established a partnership with HNEE, allocating six 0.46-hectare crop rotation plots as university trial fields, aiming to serve as a link between organic agriculture teaching, research, and practice. In 2009, Gut Wilmersdorf also joined the action research programme of the German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change and the regional climate change adaptation network, exploring the possibility of direct-sowing oats under cover crops to combat drought.

It is worth noting that the goal of action research is not to find a one-size-fits-all climate adaptation solution, but rather to focus on cultivating the farmers’ own capacity to adapt, expanding regional networks, involving more farmers, and exploring adaptation measures tailored to a farm-specific scale. The annual trial field open day has thus become the ideal time for the network to recruit new members.

At this open day, we met Fabian, a 34-year-old organic farmer who had travelled here after hearing of the farm’s reputation. He lives in the Potsdam region, less than a two-hour drive away. Three years ago, Fabian took over Gut Kienberg, a large farm of 1,000 hectares belonging to his father-in-law, primarily growing organic cereals such as rye and oats.

Fabian wants to learn more than just climate adaptation; he also hopes to expand his market reach, as bulk cereals can only be sold to organic wholesalers and supermarkets, leaving very limited profit margins. Currently, the farm’s operations must be subsidised by other income; the only way forward is to establish direct links with consumers.

Consequently, the farm also keeps 15 free-range native beef cattle, uses mobile coops for chickens, and has developed small vegetable plots to deliver vegetables, eggs, and beef once a week to consumers in Berlin.

But business hasn’t been great these past two years. “When luck is bad, the weekly home delivery only brings in three or four hundred euros (less than 3,000 yuan), and the trip just isn’t worth it. It’s not like during the pandemic years, when everyone was happy to spend more on high-quality food,” Fabian says. Yet, Fabian remains optimistic. We believe that a well-educated, open-minded generation of young farmers like him will always find a way forward.

III. Where is the next generation of farmers coming from?

Although there are plenty of young people willing to return to the land, it is an indisputable fact that Germany’s agricultural workforce continues to shrink. Over the last twenty years, the number of full-time farmers in Germany has decreased by 160,000. Brandenburg, where Gut Wilmersdorf is located, was once part of the GDR. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, many residents left the former East Germany, leaving rural areas particularly prone to decay and depopulation.

It is little wonder, then, that an AI weeding robot specifically developed for organic beetroots was showcased at the open day. Ralf Bloch, a professor at HNEE and head of the experimental fields, told us that organic beet sugar is a rarity in the German organic market. This is because weeding beetroots is incredibly labour-intensive, and the shortage of agricultural labour combined with high hiring costs has led to a dwindling supply of local organic beetroots. This sparked the attempt to develop a weeding robot specifically for this crop.

Ultimately, we didn’t get to see the robot in action. The day before the open day, the robot became unusable due to a software update glitch. Ralf admitted that the robot’s weeding speed is too slow, it struggles in the rain, it’s expensive to build… there are still many problems to solve. I suspect what he really meant was that the fundamental driver of sustainable agricultural development is the cultivation of people.

For various historical reasons, family farms are rare in Brandenburg, and the tradition of children inheriting their parents’ farms does not exist. Consequently, there is an urgent need for young blood. Two days later, we visited the HNEE campus to see how this university, with only 2,300 students, is dedicating itself to training talent for organic agriculture.

As a university of applied sciences, HNEE has bypassed traditional paradigms of knowledge production, closely integrating teaching with organic farming practice and co-creating knowledge with producers. In addition to collaborations with farm experimental fields, students in the Organic Agriculture department must complete internships at organic farms or companies lasting between 12 and 20 weeks. Each year, the summer school invites farmers to give lectures, bringing the latest trends from the field into the classroom.

The philosophy of sustainability penetrates every corner beyond the classroom: the university canteen uses organic rice, and the school maintains close ties with nearby organic supermarkets and bakeries. Here, organic and sustainable are pervasive values. Ralf proudly declared, “Currently, while enrolments at other German universities are declining, our student numbers are steadily increasing.” Upon graduation, these students will become professionals in German organic agriculture, helping research better serve farmers while applying the latest scientific findings to their own farms. This virtuous cycle of technology and practice—this human-centric, localised technical innovation—is exactly what we need most today.

Foodthink Author

zeen

An editor at Foodthink, whose new dream, sparked by a trip to Germany, is to run a street stall selling portions of liangpi (cold skin noodles) for 10 euros.

 

 

Acknowledgements

We thank the “Agricultural Biodiversity and Climate Change” bilateral exchange project organised by the Sino-German Agricultural Centre. We invite you to follow the Sino-German Agricultural Centre, the Farmers’ Seed Network, Foodthink, and the subsequent project outputs.

Unless otherwise stated, all images in this article were taken by HNEE

Editor: Tianle