From May 11 to May 20, 2022, a study trip to the German Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture in Witzenhausen (DITSL GmbH Witzenhausen) took place. The trip was attended by Kazakhstani university teachers-partners in the SAGRIS project, developing Module 4 " Transdisciplinary methods for sustainable agriculture".
Before the start of classes, a tour of the German Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture took place. Continuing his acquaintance with the Institute, Professor C. Hülsebusch presented an interesting presentation about the history of the institute and the city of Witzenhausen.
During the study trip, the participants were involved in active group work aimed at immersing themselves in the content of module 4 and gaining practical skills in planning and conducting transdisciplinary research. In an interactive form, work was carried out on the topics "Analysis of problems", "Analysis of actors", "Analysis of activity and knowledge", "Assessment tools based on a broad participation", etc. European researchers of problems in the field of agriculture, actively applying transdisciplinary methods, spoke to the teachers of partner universities. The results of the projects were presented: The Cultural Landscape of Hohenlohe, Germany (Professor Angelika Thomas), Multifactorial cooperation in dairy farming in Kenya (Joanna Albrecht), and examples of other transdisciplinary EU projects are also shown (Professor Anja Kristink).
Excursions organized by European partners had a huge impact on the high efficiency of the study trip. One of the most interesting took place during the familiarization with the project "Sheep create a landscape". The tour was accompanied by a lively conversation, the developer of the idea, farmer Helfrid Berger gave exhaustive answers to a large number of questions about the implementation of this project. Excursions to Gut Agrar Natura GmbH and the dairy farm Siebert and Birkengrund, Niederkaufungen also aroused great interest. During the internship, Patricia Kiprono, a doctoral student of the German Institute of Agriculture in the Tropics and Subtropics, held classes on the topic "Qualitative data analysis" and Irina Bogdashkina, a representative of developers from the Kazakh side, on the topic "Creating effective transdisciplinary teams". The study trip also made it possible to plan the program of the second Module 4 block seminar in Kazakhstan. The study trip ended with a solemn ceremony of awarding certificates, the participants shared their enthusiastic impressions of the work carried out.