Agriculture doesn’t stop at borders, and neither should the conversations about it. At Tropentag 2025, a handful of workshops reminded us that true transformation isn’t just about new crops or clever tech it’s about how we share knowledge, who gets to shape it, and whether cooperation can really cross continents and cultures.

One of the most thought-provoking sessions tackled the big question of decolonising knowledge and practice in agricultural research. It asked: whose knowledge counts? For too long, research has often flowed in one direction from the “global North” to the “global South.” This workshop flipped the script, making the case that farmers, communities, and local researchers hold just as much expertise, and their voices deserve to be at the center of the conversation.

The theme of international cooperation was picked up in another workshop exploring lessons from projects spanning South America, Europe, and Africa. Here, the stories were less about abstract models and more about the gritty reality of working together across contexts. Cooperation, it seems, is messy different time zones, cultures, and funding streams but it’s also where innovation thrives. As one participant put it: “We grow better when we grow together.”

Capacity building came into focus with the workshop on East African doctoral education. It’s one thing to talk about cooperation in theory, it’s another to see it shaping the next generation of researchers. Strengthening transdisciplinary skills doesn’t just train individuals it builds bridges, ensuring that research is more collaborative, inclusive, and grounded in local realities.

Taken together, these workshops painted a picture of agricultural research that is less about exporting solutions and more about co-creating them. A vision where borders matter less than relationships, and where knowledge flows in multiple directions, enriching everyone along the way.

The metaphors of seeds and soil often dominate agricultural talk, but here it was clear: ideas are seeds too, and they grow best when planted in many soils.

So as Tropentag 2025 unfolds, let’s carry forward this reminder: science is strongest when it’s shared, when it’s questioned, and when it makes room for every voice at the table. Beyond borders, there’s a field of possibility and in that field, we can all be farmers of knowledge.