The 21st Wellmann International Scientific Conference was organized by the SZTE Faculty of Agriculture under the title Global challenges and responses in the field of agriculture and environmental protection, which focused on climate change this year. The participants – Professor Márta SZÉLL, strategic vice chancellor of the University of Szeged, and Mariana Ramona CIOLAC Ph.D., dean of the Faculty of Economics and Rural Tourism of the King Mihai I University of Life Sciences in Timisoara – were welcomed by Edit MIKÓ Ph.D., dean of the USZ Faculty of Agriculture.

"More than 150 participants from more than 20 countries are present at the conference, with more than 50 presentations and at least the same number of posters will be presented on this day. This year, the researchers will present their work in five sections, covering practically the entire spectrum of agriculture. In addition to the knowledge of crop cultivation and animal husbandry, the topics also include environmental protection, food safety, food processing, wildlife management, or agricultural economics. The spectrum is very broad and very diverse. This year, we put special emphasis on global warming. This year, the Wellmann Conference is taking place within the framework of Erasmus Week. Participants and interested parties also came to us for the Erasmus week from those African countries for whom desertification is already a perceptible fact, who produce under these conditions," said Edit MIKÓ Ph.D., dean of the Faculty of Agriculture.

Despite our differences, even if we breed different species or breeds, our problems are similar to those of a farmer in a North African country.

"In Hungary, we have just come to the point where we really need to think about what breeds we breed in animal husbandry, because the only way animals can produce economically in the summer heat is if we cool their environment. We can learn a lot from foreign colleagues today. The university - among many other things - basically has two priority tasks: one is education, the other is research. Research can't be domestic, an international relationship can be of great value, with which we can broaden our horizons," added Edit MIKÓ, dean.

"The Wellmann Conference is a good opportunity to further think about the effects of climate change, either in the fields of crop cultivation, animal husbandry, or environmental protection, together with the invited researchers, in search of possible solutions. In addition, we are also trying to think together and plan new research projects that can help us manage this problem regionally," said Professor Szilárd CZÓBEL, chairman of the organizing committee of the Wellmann International Scientific Conference.

The ideas of the European Union are forward-looking in dealing with climate change. Greening and habitat reconstruction help to improve the water content of the soils in the various cultivated areas, thereby increasing production security. The huge advantage of re-greening and habitat restoration is that it reduces carbon dioxide emissions and increases the sequestration potential, thus enabling a more liveable future, added Professor Szilárd CZÓBEL.

The effects of global warming have been obvious to researchers for a long time, but decision-makers have not taken this problem into account in all cases, at the same time, extremely dry seasons and years also have economic effects, which is why decision-makers have been taking the question of sustainable farming more and more seriously in recent times - summed up Professor Szilárd CZÓBEL.

Gideon ADU DONYINA, assistant lecturer at the Faculty of Agriculture, applied for the poster section with his research on sweet potato. The young researcher obtained a BSc degree in West African Ghana, then an MSc at MATE, and is currently a PhD student at the Doctoral School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Szeged.

"If people from different agricultural backgrounds and different fields of research can meet, they can get to know new perspectives. At the university, I can primarily study Hungarian aspects, so this conference is a very good opportunity for me to meet researchers from other countries and get to know other points of view," said Gideon ADU DONYINA.

The assistant lecturer of the Faculty emphasized that he is lucky that he started his studies in Africa, then he can expand his knowledge in Europe, and that his role models can be researchers such as Katalin KARIKÓ, the Nobel Prize-winning research professor of the University of Szeged.