About TROPEN
What is TROPEN
At retirement of Prof. (em.) Dr. Marc Janssens in 2009, we decided to follow up our former students and give them the opportunities to keep us informed about their whereabouts, their research progress and their practical experiences all over the tropical world. And yet, we were astonished to see the rich diversity of research and production domains where all alumni were involved in. We could also feel the necessity to share experiences, publications and projects. Finally, we realized that this tropical agricultural world ought to be interconnected even more than temperate regions. Many challenges of the latter regions are often compounded under tropical circumstances as e.g. Erosion, deforestation, energy requirements and efficiency, maximizing agricultural inputs, management of local resources, climate change, product quality. In fact, agriculture can be defined as an alternate process of concentration and wasteful dilution of resources. How do we improve this Sisiphus process?
Why exist? Objectives
We share a common vision regarding future agriculture in the tropics:
- Agriculture should be productive, and even more productive than the corresponding natural ecosystem at climax i.e. Agroclimax > ecoclimax
- Agriculture should be both resource and energy efficient
- Future agriculture should be sustainable i.e. It should respect not only today’s environment but also tomorrow’s environment
- Product quality starts with appropriate genetic selection
- Agricultural commodities deserve a fair trade, encompassing a fair access to markets, to agricultural inputs and to certification processes
We want to implement this vision wherever we are in whatever farming system with the help of the following tools: