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Bachelor thesis ideas PE. IRL
Subject areas
Climate change: greenhouse gases in agriculture
Topic complex: CO2
emissions and sequestration in agriculture Problem In the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, Germany committed itself to reducing greenhouse gas emissions (Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety). By 2030, emissions are to be reduced by 55% compared to 1990 levels. Agriculture caused 7.4% of Germany's greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 (Federal Environment Agency 2020). Farm managers can have the greenhouse gas emissions of their production calculated (Arbeitsgruppe 2016; Lasar 2017) in order to obtain a climate balance for each individual farm. However, soil is also a CO2 store. By increasing the humus content in the soil, additional CO2 can be sequestered. This requires targeted agricultural measures (Tuomisto et al. 2013). If the humus content in the soil is increased, e.g. B. documented by repeated soil samples, it is possible to have the CO2 sequestration certified. The certificates can then be sold to other companies (Bockholt 2021). Trading in CO2 certificates has the potential to become an additional source of income for farmers who operate accordingly. The following questions must be answered in bachelor's theses: • How is the CO2 footprint of agricultural production calculated ? • How can the climate balance of agricultural businesses be improved? • Who currently offers certifications for the sequestration of carbon in the soil? • What long-term commitments must a business offering humus certificates enter into? • How do the proposed arable farming measures differ in terms of the achievable humus build-up? • How do the proposed arable farming measures differ in terms of costs? Methods • Literature research If you are interested, please contact Dr. Hermann Trenkel ( h.trenkel@ilr.uni-bonn.de ) References Bibliography Working group, BEK (2016): Calculation standard for individual farm carbon footprints (BEK) in agriculture. In: Handbook. Published by the Board for Technology and Construction in Agriculture. Darmstadt. Available online at , last checked on August 30, 2021. Bockholt, Karl (2021): Three paths to becoming a climate economist: How to earn money with CO2 certificates (agrarheute). Available online at , last checked on March 19, 2021.
Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety: The Climate Conference in Paris. Available online at , last accessed on August 30, 2021.
Lasar, Ansgar (2017): Chamber of Agriculture prepares individual farm climate balances, last accessed on August 30, 2021.
Tuomisto, Hanna L.; Angileri, Vincenzo; Camillis, Camillo de; Loudjani, Philippe; Nisini, Luigi; Pelletier, Nathan; Haastrup, Palle (2013): Certification of low carbon farming practices. Final technical report. Luxembourg: Publications Office (EUR. Scientific and technical research series, 26378).
Federal Environment Agency (ed.) (2020): Agriculture's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. Available online at , last checked on 19 March 2021.
Digitalization and Robotics
Topic complex:
Digitalization and the use of robots in crop production
Description
The digitalization of agriculture has led to diverse developments in the areas of digital decision support for management and precision farming (Gandorfer et al. 2017). While farm management information systems provide farm managers with data for decision-making, precision farming can reduce the introduction of nutrients and pesticides into the environment through site-specific management (Finger et al. 2019). The use of robots for mechanical weed control can replace the use of herbicides and at the same time saves working time (Gaus et al. 2017) (Lampridi et al. 2019). Robots can therefore achieve simultaneous ecological and social improvements in arable farming (Lowenberg-DeBoer et al. 2020).
Against this background, the following questions can be investigated as part of bachelor's theses:
• How can negative environmental impacts of agriculture be reduced through precision farming?
• How can the profitability of digital information systems be determined?
• What tasks can field robots take on in the future?
• How is the profitability of using field robots assessed?
Methods
• Literature analysis
• Performance-cost analysis for a case study
If you are interested, please contact Dr. Hermann Trenkel ( h.trenkel@ilr.uni-bonn.de )
References
Finger, Robert; Swinton, Scott M.; El Benni, Nadja; Walter, Achim (2019): Precision farming at the nexus of agricultural production and the environment.
Gandorfer, Markus; Schleicher, Sebastian; Heuser, Sebastian; Pfeiffer, Johanna; Demmel, Markus (2017): Agriculture 4.0 - Digitization and its challenges. In: Arable farming solutions for the future 9.
Gaus, Cord-Christian; Urso, Lisa-Marie; Minßen, Till-Fabian; Witte, Thomas de (2017): Economics of mechanical weeding by a swarm of small field robots.
Lampridi, Maria G.; Kateris, Dimitrios; Vasileiadis, Giorgos; Marinoudi, Vasso; Pearson, Simon; Sørensen, Claus G. et al. (2019): A Case-Based Economic Assessment of Robotics Employment in Precision Arable Farming. In: Agronomy 9 (4), p. 175. DOI: 10.3390/agronomy9040175.
Lowenberg-DeBoer, James; Huang, Iona Yuelu; Grigoriadis, Vasileios; Blackmore, Simon (2020): Economics of robots and automation in field crop production. In: Precision Agric 21 (2), pp. 278–299. DOI: 10.1007/s11119-019-09667-5.
Further literature
Benjamin, Madonna; Yik, Steven (2019): Precision livestock farming in swine welfare: a review for swine practitioners. In: Animals 9 (4), p. 133.
Griepentrog, Hans W.; Frank, Markus; Bahrs, Enno (2020): Digital value chains for sustainable small-scale agriculture – DiWenkLa. In: Markus Gandorfer, Andreas Meyer-Aurich, Heinz Bernhardt, Franz Xaver Maidl, Georg Fröhlich and Helga Floto (eds.): 40th GIL Annual Conference, Digitalization for People, Environment and Animals. Bonn: German Informatics Society, pp. 367–372.
Schmidt, Christian (2018): Agriculture 4.0 – Digitalization as an opportunity for sustainable agriculture. In: Digitalization in the tension between politics, business, science and law: Springer, pp. 397–407.
Witte, Thomas de (2019): Economic perspectives of autonomous small-scale machines in arable farming; in: Journal für Kulturpflanzen, Vol. 71 No. 4, pp. 95–100.
Sustainable management
Topic area:
Sustainable farming methods
Description
Sustainable intensification methods are said to have great potential for reducing the negative effects of agriculture on the ecosystem without having to reduce yields (The Royal Society (London) 2009). Sustainable intensification practices include, for example, mixed cropping (Clerc et al. 2015), catch cropping (Grosse 2018), buffer strips, flowering strips (Kirmer et al. 2020), integrated pest management, agroforestry systems (Deutsch and Otter 2020; Langenberg et al. 2018) and strip farming. However, results from field trials rarely find their way into practical farm operations. This raises the question of the acceptance barriers to these practices. Against this background, the following questions can be examined:
• How can the different decision-making factors for or against certain measures be recorded and analyzed?
• What site-specific challenges arise for the farmer with certain measures and what role do risk considerations play?
• How can the economic viability of selected measures be determined using case studies or scenarios?
• How is the economic viability of agroforestry systems assessed?
• How can the different dimensions of the ecological objectives be determined and linked to the measures?
Methods
• Literature analyses
If you are interested, please contact Dr. Hermann Trenkel ( h.trenkel@ilr.uni-bonn.de )
References
Clerc, Maurice; Klaiss, Matthias; Messmer, Monika; Arncken, Christine; Dierauer, Hansueli; Hegglin, Django; Böhler, Daniel (2015): Improving domestic protein supply with mixed crops. In: Agrarforschung Schweiz 6 (11-12), pp. 508–515.
Deutsch, Maximilian; Otter, Verena (2020): Sustainability and promotion? Acceptance factors of German farmers for agroforestry systems.
Grosse, Meike (2018): The influence of cover crops and reduced tillage in organic farming systems on nitrogen fluxes and weeds.
Kirmer, Anita; Förster, Jenny; Pfau, Mark; Schubert, Lea; Schmidt, Annika; Schmid-Egger, Christian; Tischew, Sabine (2020): Increasing biodiversity in vineyards by sowing native wild plants.
Langenberg, Josef; Feldmann, Marius; Theuvsen, Ludwig (2018): Agroforestry systems using alley cropping: A risk analysis compared to conventional arable farming using Monte Carlo simulation.
The Royal Society (London) (2009): Reaping the benefits. Science and the sustainable intensification of global agriculture. London: The Royal Society.
Weather risks
Topic complex
: Weather risks - Adaptation strategies in crop production
Description
In recent years, a lack of precipitation has led to so-called drought events, sometimes with serious yield losses in the affected regions (Finger 2019). Strategies to limit the economic consequences of such drought events include field irrigation or taking out drought insurance (Bucheli et al. 2020).
Both measures incur costs and, in the case of field irrigation, also have ecological impacts, particularly through groundwater extraction (Kellner et al. 2012). Possible work addresses the following questions:
• What is the range and effectiveness of drought insurance in Germany?
• What insurance options exist in other European countries?
• What potential for damage reduction does index insurance offer?
• What are the investment costs and water requirements of the various irrigation systems?
• How is the suitability of selected crops for irrigation determined and which crops are therefore suitable for irrigation?
• What influence does irrigation have on the local climate?
Methods
• Literature analyses
If you are interested, please contact Dr. Hermann Trenkel ( h.trenkel@ilr.uni-bonn.de )
References
Bucheli, Janic; Dalhaus, Tobias; Finger, Robert (2020): The optimal drought index for designing weather index insurance. In: European Review of Agricultural Economics. DOI: 10.1093/erae/jbaa014.
Finger, Robert (2019): Risk management in the face of climate change. In: Keeping a cool head - adapting agriculture to climate change, KTBL conference from March 20 to 21, 2019 in Darmstadt, pp. 277-291.
Kellner, Ulla; Mußhoff, Oliver; Battermann, Henning W. (2012): The economic evaluation of field irrigation taking into account risk and changes in water abstraction permits.
Economic efficiency of animal production
Topic area:
Economic efficiency of animal production
Description
The Technical Instructions on Air Quality Control (TA Luft) have recently been amended. The German Federal Government approved the new TA Luft on June 23, 2021, and the regulation will enter into force three months after its publication. With the revised TA Luft, the German Federal Government is tightening emission limits for technical systems. For example, large animal husbandry facilities (barns with more than 1,500 fattening pigs or more than 30,000 broiler chickens) will in future be required to filter 70 percent of ammonia and particulate matter emissions from exhaust air (BMU 2021). As a result, a number of agricultural barns will have to retrofit exhaust air purification systems (Deter 2021). At the same time, the previous regulation already made it more difficult to convert barns into outdoor climate barns with increased animal welfare (Wildraut and Mergenthaler 2017). In new buildings, closed barns are preferred over animal welfare-friendly outdoor climate barns, as these are easier to approve due to the approval process under emissions control law (Maisack and Felde 2019).
This gives rise to the following questions, which can be addressed in a bachelor's thesis:
• What legal requirements apply to barn construction?
• How is the conflict between animal welfare and emission control discussed in the literature?
• What are the costs of retrofitting exhaust air purification?
Methods
• Literature analysis
• Performance-cost analysis for a case study
If you are interested, please contact Dr. Hermann Trenkel ( h.trenkel@ilr.uni-bonn.de )
References
BMU (2021): Stricter limits on pollutant emissions from industrial plants. June 23, 2021 | Press release no. 141/21 | Air pollution control. Available online at , last accessed on August 31, 2021.
Deter, Alfons (2021): TA-Luft: 175 stables need new exhaust air filters (Top Agrar). Available online at , last accessed on March 19,
2021. Maisack, Christoph; Felde, Barbara (2019): Animal welfare in outdoor climate stables and stables with outdoor access. In: NuR 41 (3), pp. 170–180. DOI: 10.1007/s10357-019-3486-7.
Wildraut, Christiane; Mergenthaler, Marcus (2017): TECHNOLOGY AS A CONTRIBUTION TO IMPROVED ANIMAL WELFARE IN PIG FARMING FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF FARMERS.
Cow-calf rearing
Issue:
Cow-calf rearing
Problem
Conventional dairy farming is criticized by animal rights activists as cruel, as calves are separated from their mothers immediately after calving (Albright 2020). If contact between cow and calf is permitted for an extended period, the pain of weaning increases during later separation (Spengler Neff et al. 2017), but the calves gain weight faster and develop species-appropriate social behavior (Meagher et al. 2019). Until weaning, calves consume milk, which reduces revenue from milk sales (Nicolao et al. 2020). Cow-calf rearing is a form of dairy farming that does not separate cows and calves immediately after birth. This method is preferred by some consumers but usually means additional financial expenditure for dairy farms (Placzek et al. 2019).
The following questions can be addressed in bachelor’s theses:
• How are possible methods of cow-calf rearing assessed in the literature with regard to animal welfare?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of these methods in terms of production technology and economics?
• What marketing opportunities already exist for milk from cow-calf rearing, and what can be expected in the future?
Methods
• Literature research
References
Albright, Alexa (2020): Natural Calf Rearing Could Be a Simple Solution to Improving the Wel-fare of Dairy Cows. In: Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy 23 (3), pp. 191–211. DOI: 10.1080/13880292.2020.1852670.
Kälber, Tasja; Barth, Kerstin (2014): Practical implications of suckling systems for dairy calves in organic production systems‐a review. In: Landbauforschung Volkenrode 64 (1), pp. 45–58.
Meagher, Rebecca K.; Beaver, Annabelle; Weary, Daniel M.; von Keyserlingk, Marina AG (2019): Invited review: A systematic review of the effects of prolonged cow-calf contact on be-havior, welfare, and productivity. In: Journal of Dairy Science 102 (7), pp. 5765–5783. DOI: 10.3168/jds.2018-16021.
Nicolao; Koczura; Mathieu; Bouchon; Sturaro; Martin; Pomiès (2020): Which compromise be-tween milk production and cow-calf contact in dairy systems? In: Schmid, Johnson, Vaarst and Früh (eds.): Organic Animal Husbandry systems - challenges, performance and potentials (IAHA), pp. 23–26. Available online at , last accessed on 20 January 2021.
Placzek, Matthias; Christoph-Schulz, Inken; Barth, Kerstin (2019): Marketing of milk from cow-calf rearing.
Spengler Neff, Anet; Schneider, Claudia; Ivemeyer, Silvia; Bigler, Martin; Bindel, Barbara; Ha-eni, Robert et al. (2017): Mother- and foster-bonded calf rearing in dairy farming: Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL).
Contact:
Insects as a production branch
Insects, as cold-blooded animals, require significantly less energy for their growth than conventional farm animals. This is why the production of insect protein is considered extremely efficient (van Huis 2013). While insects or their larvae have already been introduced as food in other parts of the world, the consumption of insects by humans (entomophagy) is met with rejection in Europe. For this reason, insects and insect larvae are proposed as a protein source for animal nutrition (Diekmann 2020).
Against this background, the following questions arise, which should be pursued in the context of bachelor's theses:
• How does insect breeding work in practice? Particular attention should be paid to the legal framework, possible feed sources, accommodation, time requirements, and marketing.
• How high are the costs of producing one kilogram of insect protein? In addition to the costs, the cost structure is of particular interest here.
Methods
• Literature analysis
• Expert interviews
References
Diekmann, Marie (2020): What potential do algal and insect proteins have as feed components in Germany? Results of an expert survey. In: Reports on Agriculture - Journal of Agricultural Policy and Agriculture.
van Huis, Arnold (2013): Potential of insects as food and feed in assuring food security. In: Annual review of entomology 58, pp. 563–583.
Larvae of the black soldier fly
Your own topic suggestions
Your own topic.
• Would you like to research a topic of your own choosing in your BA? Then please note the following information.
• We do not supervise individual farm case studies . The topic should therefore have a broad theoretical component; a case study only serves as a supplement.
• The topic should address a specific research question . For example, "How do the various options for piglet castration affect the costs of piglet production?" is better than "Consequences of the ban on piglet castration without anesthesia." The title of the thesis does not have to be formulated as a question.
• The topic should be reasonably current and relevant, and there should be literature on the topic. Therefore, find at least one academic paper that is relevant to your research question. You can also do the opposite and find an interesting paper and then consider which research question you can address in your BA. The paper should not be too old (perhaps no more than 5 to 10 years old) and should have been published in a good Ag Econ journal . A list of 160 journals is linked below. By choosing a journal from this list, you can ensure the quality of the article.
• Consider a suitable methodology to answer your research question.
• If you want to work empirically, ensure access to the necessary data.
Notes on academic writing
Guidelines and format template for theses
Notes on academic writing
Further links
News File has been updated.File: Economic Efficiency_Animal.pdfDate 31. Aug 2021, 17:49File has been updated.File: Sustainable_Management.pd...Date 31. Aug 2021, 14:57File has been updated.File: Digitalization and Robot Use.pdfDate 31. Aug 2021, 14:57File has been updated.File: Carbon Farming.pdfDate 31. Aug 2021, 14:55File has been updated.File: Cow-bound calf husbandry.pdfDate 16. Jul 2021, 17:25
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