Summer 2025 Field Trips: Experiences in Germany and India

Julia Fritzsche and Haani are both PhD students within the Agroecology4Climate project and focus on the collection and analysis of data within the case studies of Brandenburg, Germany, and Kerala, India. They have just finished their first big data collection efforts and report the following.

Julia, PhD student for the Brandenburg case study

Poplar alley cropping system, Brandenburg, Germany

It was a cloudy, misty morning in July. It had rained the previous days. Finally, according to most farmers. I got off the train and hopped on my bike. Ahead of me were 40 minutes of biking through Brandenburg’s farming landscape. The barley fields had already been harvested. The wheat stood in all its glory. After crossing a patch of pine forest, I pass two small sparsely populated villages and ride for 20 minutes on the country road before arriving. Ahead of me is one of the most interesting and longest conversations I've had with one of Brandenburg’s regenerative farming pioneers.

After four months of interviews, my team and I had spoken with nearly 50 farmers, farming groups, and projects throughout Brandenburg. In conversations with our practice partner, we decided to conduct interviews with open-ended questions to receive detailed answers for our survey. And it worked! We visited each farm, went on a tour, and enjoyed lovely conversations with everyone.

Small-scale goat diary farming, Brandenburg, Germany

Some of my highlights include:

• Observing the diversity and uniqueness of each farm and the diversity within them. We visited farms of all types, from small-scale vegetable farms to large-scale crop production farms, with and without animals.

• Conducting interviews with our practice partner, which allowed me to participate in conversations between farmers, sharing best practices, recommendations, and networking.

• Seeing so many different agroforestry projects pop up. There were community-led syntropic forest gardens, as well as poplar alley cropping on large permanent grasslands and crop fields.

Haani, PhD student for the Kerala case study 

Adimali Idukki Pepper, Kerala, India

It was March when I left behind Hohenheim and landed in Kerala, greeted by the burning heat. Over the next three months, I would travel across the state, speaking with farmers, local organizations, and agroecology practitioners to better understand the region’s agroecological transition. The early phase of my fieldwork was spent meeting key informants which included individuals and organizations deeply embedded in Kerala’s sustainable agriculture landscape. Their insights were helpful in shaping my survey tools and helped identify the locations that would become the core of my study.

By early April, I began the farmer surveys. My journey started in Idukki, where steep slopes are dotted with cocoa, coffee, pepper, and nutmeg. The terrain made surveys a challenge, but the conversations were rich. From there, I moved northward to Wayanad, a district known for its scenic valleys and long history of coffee and paddy cultivation. In the start of May, I reached Kannur, and here farmers grew paddy, coconut, and areca nut, often in mixed systems that blended commercial with traditional crops. Kozhikode was my final stop. Each day brought long hours under the blazing sun, and by late May, the early arrival of the southwest monsoon brought welcome relief, though it also posed logistical challenges in the final phase of surveys.

Wayanad Coffee Plantation, Kerala, India

Over the course of three months, my field assistants and I visited over 300 farms across Kerala’s diverse agroecological zones. We listened to farmers reflect on everything from different farming practices and market fluctuations to why they chose to farm organically or diversify their crops. What we gathered wasn’t just data. It was a collection of lived experiences — stories of resilience, adaptation, and a deep connection to the soil.

Conclusion

In the next month the data from the interviews and surveys will be analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively to define and measure agroecology in the two case study regions. It will also focus on barriers and opportunities for a further transition to agroecology. The next fieldwork period will involve the collection of biophysical data on selected farms from the first field trips. Stay tuned!