Cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) is an important agricultural commodity that is important to the economies of many countries in the world. Due to cocoa’s dependence on fertile forests soils, its production is a major cause of deforestation and soil degradation in producing countries. When grown in agroforestry systems it can conserve biodiversity, sequester carbon (C), and maintain soil fertility. There are many cocoa agroforests which are managed without synthetic agrochemicals. Because organic cocoa certification is now ...

Die vorliegende Arbeit umfasst Studien zur Untersuchung technischer und ökologischer Aspekte bei der Nutzung von Restbiomassen in den Nutzungspfaden Energieerzeugung und Aktivkohleproduktion. Im Mittelpunkt der jeweiligen Untersuchung stand das Verfahren zur integrierten Erzeugung von Festbrennstoff und Biogas aus Biomasse (IFBB) und dessen Einfluss auf technische und ökologische Aspekte bei der Verwertung von Restbiomassen. Im Zuge von Naturschutz- und Landschaftspflegemaßnahmen auf extensiv bewirtschafteten ...

This thesis combines experimental work on heterogeneous crop populations (HP) and species mixtures (SM) with a social scientific and participatory approach. Chapter 1 introduces crop communities as a concept to integrate multiple approaches to diversify farming systems. HPs provide intraspecific and SM interspecific diversity in crop communities. A key challenge for the genetic improvement of HPs, especially for root traits is to combine effective selection to improve HPs while maintaining intraspecific diversity. ...

Cultivating apples on sites previously used for cultivation of apples leads to suppression of vegetative performance of apple trees and losses in fruit yields. This replant effect is attributed to an apple related form of soil fertility loss named ‘soil fatigue’ and ‘Apple Replant Disease’ (ARD). Replant disease strongly affects profitability of apple production in nurseries specialised in fruit trees, as well as on fruit orchards. Recent studies focus on causally linked agents of the replant disease and quantification ...