Sustainability

From our own ranks: Ideas for insects

What can we at KWS do to help preserve insects, their diversity and their numbers?

Insects are the group of living creatures with the most species, accounting for more than 70 percent of animal species worldwide. However, many scientific studies from recent years describe a decline in their number and diversity.

One of them is the Krefeld Study, which made the issue more widely known among the general public in Germany. Many of these studies are criticized for having deficiencies.

Factors for the decline in insect populations

There are no hard and fast conclusions as to what inspects are impacted, how severely and under what conditions. Yet there is a clear trend, and a decline in insect diversity should be regarded as problematic from the ecological perspective.

Apart from the scale of insect loss, the main factors for it are also being discussed intensively. Urbanization and light pollution, as well as agriculture, are seen as causes.

Foundation of the KWS initiative

So we need to ask: What can we at KWS do for insect diversity? The Pro-Insect team was established from various KWS departments to investigate that. The group aims to find and formulate approaches that enable KWS to develop products and services that help insects thrive and offer them to farmers.

The interdisciplinary team generated ideas in the past weeks and narrowed them down in a cross-function workshop to which external experts from German universities were also invited.

United, yet diverse: The 13-strong workshop team. Back row: Mario Schumann, Walter Schmidt, Carlos Guentner, Bastian Kolkmeyer, Thomas Kunze, Viktor Korzun, Marcel Meyer. Front row: Sarah Rossdeutscher, Beate Rother, Alexandra Molitor, Gesa Trenckmann, Susann Volkmann, Nina Behnke

Generation of ideas with I-Garage

The Pro-Insect initiative first launched an international internal online campaign via I-Garage in order to leverage know-how and ideas from all of KWS’ fields of expertise. “Create Diversity” was the slogan the team coined on the platform to urge R&D colleagues worldwide to rethink how KWS can help protect insect diversity.

In just five weeks – between May and June 2019 – 175 colleagues submitted a total of 16 different ideas and posted more than a hundred comments.

Interdisciplinary workshop

These ideas were then developed further in a workshop, with the support of Felix Büchting from the Executive Board, in Einbeck on June 24, 2019. It addressed the question: What can we at KWS do for insect diversity?

It was important here to avoid greenwashing or conducting pure basic research in relation to the issue of insect loss. At the end of the day, the objective was to come up with ideas that have a direct and positive impact on insect diversity.

“The ideas were formulated and selected by a cross-function team from our own ranks. Thank you from the core team to everyone who played a part.”

Inspired by external talks by Professor Catrin Westphal (from the University of Göttingen in Germany) and Professor Nicole Marie van Dam (from the University of Jena in Germany), the thirteen participants identified twelve concepts for ideas. Six favorites were then fleshed out and finally four were chosen to be developed further.

Next steps

The next step is now to search actively for sponsors and people who would like to collaborate in implementing one of the projects. |

Top four ideas

What can we do for insect diversity?

Mixed cropping: Existing co-cultivation of corn and bean plants already offers a high level of biodiversity. Insects benefit from that. Task: Are there other types of insect-friendly mixed cropping? How can we make co-cultivation of corn/beans even more insect-friendly?
Catch crops: There is time for a catch crop between harvesting and sowing. AckerFit can not only protect and improve the soil and prepare it for the next sowing, but also offer insects shelter and food. Task: How can our AckerFit products support this biodiversity?
Dialogue with farmers: We should be aware of what farmers think about the subject of insect diversity and what possibilities they see for it at their farms. Task: What are the specific expectations, wishes and plans of farmers?
Set a good example and leverage “Already There” areas – i.e. land not used commercially or for nature conservation: Make insect-friendly use of such areas on the company campus, at KWS’ farms and elsewhere. Task: How can we build up expertise in this field and pass it on to other locations and farmers?

Pro-Insect looks forward to expanding the team. Anyone interested can contact:

Marcel Meyer
marcel.meyer@kws.com

Alexandra Molitor
alexandra.molitor@kws.com

Mario Schumann
mario.schumann@kws.com