Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Sciences

The use of robots, drones and AI tools in agriculture is already paying off on 42 percent of the world’s cropland. This could increase to 50 percent in the next 20 years and to as much as 75 percent if every country tightened environmental regulations. If every country loosened its regulations it would fall to 31 percent. These are the main findings from an international study led by the University of Bonn, which is the first to estimate the profitability of smart farming worldwide. What is more, high-tech agriculture often proves profitable precisely in parts of the world struggling with environmental problems such as water stress and overfertilization. The results of the study have been published in the journal PNAS.

Oil and natural gas still account for the vast majority of the world's energy and raw materials, with all the associated environmental and biodiversity consequences. The bioeconomy is an approach to overcoming this dependence: instead of using fossil fuels, it uses renewable resources such as plants, microorganisms, and organic waste. The goal is for economic growth to go hand in hand with protecting species, the climate, and soils. The updated edition of the Global Bioeconomy Policy Report 2026, produced by the International Advisory Council on Global Bioeconomy (IACGB), has been launched in Dublin on 20 October. The Global South, in particular, is increasingly recognizing the bioeconomy as a sustainable and equitable economic model.

Under the theme “The Rhythm of Revolution,” 7,500 participants from universities and educational institutions around the world met in Glasgow from 8–11 September 2026 for Europe’s most important international higher education fair.

As one of two internationally renowned experts, Susanne Glaser, Professor for Space Geodesy, was invited by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) to visit Tokyo and Tsukuba from 12 to 18 September 2026. The purpose of the visit was to further strengthen the exchange of knowledge and international cooperation in the field of geodesy. Geodesy is concerned with measuring and monitoring of the Earth, today primarily using satellite techniques such as the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS).

The world’s oceans behave like a thermometer: As the water warms, it expands and sea levels rise. Geodesy researchers at the University of Bonn are able to measure this and determine how much the oceans are warming. For individual ocean basins, their method has revealed significant deviations from model calculations—in some cases in the double-digit percentage range.

During the 8th African Conference of Agricultural Economists, which was held from 22-25 September 2026 in Nairobi, Matin Qaim was recognized as Honorary Fellow of the African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE). Qaim is Schlegel-Professor of Economic and Technological Change at the University of Bonn’s Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Science and Executive Director at the Center for Development Research (ZEF).

The former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro contributed to deforestation with statements opposing forest conservation. This is shown by an international study led by the University of Bonn. According to this, the destruction of the Amazon rainforest accelerated considerably when Bolsonaro and his ministers posted anti-forest-conservation messages on Twitter. Brazil’s environmental authorities were greatly weakened during Bolsonaro’s term of office. Irrespective of this, the analysis shows that even the perception of a low risk of punishment was a relevant driver of deforestation. The researchers estimate that up to 1,700 square kilometers of forest – almost double the area of Berlin – were destroyed due to the power of words. The results have been published in The Journal of Politics.

During the heatwave of 2018, meadows and pastures also suffered from the drought. Are grasslands in diverse landscapes more resilient to yield losses than those in monotonous regions? Researchers at the University of Bonn led by Marco Ferro and Prof. Dr. Jan Börner from the Institute for Food and Resource Economics (ILR) investigated the influence of landscape diversity on the drought tolerance of grasslands as part of Collaborative Research Center 1502 DETECT.