Focus on climate change – Field day at the Frankenhausen domain
03.07.2025 | EVENT
How can organic farming contribute to climate protection – and how can it adapt to the consequences of climate change at the same time? These questions were the focus of the field day at the Hessian State Domain Frankenhausen on July 3, 2025.
Under the title “Focus: Climate change – problems and potentials in organic farming”, interested parties from practice, research and consulting met for a varied program of specialist presentations and a practical field tour.
In the morning, contributions from the Swiss DOK trial, the Frankenhausen long-term trial provided scientifically proven insights into the climate impact of different cultivation systems and the potential of targeted management strategies.
In her presentation, Prof. Sabine Seidel from BoKu Vienna pointed out that agriculture is still the sector with the highest annual methane and nitrous oxide emissions, which is why it is so important to work together on measures to reduce them.
In the afternoon, things got more practical: in three stations, employees of the University of Kassel gave tours of the experimental facilities on the grounds of the domain. Topics included:
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Greenhouse gas emissions and humus increase in a long-term ecological trial
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Leachate and gas measurements in the “Umkreis” project of the Farmers Led Research Network Hesse (PFN)
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Irrigation systems, mulch and sensor technology in vegetable growing
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Mixed crops as perennial, climate-adapted cultivation systems
Experiments, posters and initial results were presented at each station – supplemented by short demonstrations and discussions with the participants. It became particularly clear that agriculture is facing major challenges and that many solutions are already being tested in organic farming research.
