KTBL international
We: Our association, What we do, How does KTBL work?
Photovoltaic systems - correct alignment of modules
Participation in international committees on climate protection
KTBL as your partner for EU projects
AGROVOC
Glossary of Terms on livestock and manure management
LANDTECHNIK - Agricultural Engineering
Recent Developments on welfare-oriented Animal Husbandry
Economic efficiency of dairy goat farming
Standard Gross Margins
agriXchange - a platformon data exchange in agriculture
Biogas and Bioenergy: European Biogas Initiative, KTBL/VDLUFA Proficiency Test Biogas, IEA Bioenergy Task 37, BioEnergy Farm 2
ZINEG - The Low Energy Greenhouse
GODAN-DO: ethical and legal aspects of Open Data
Construction, Engineering and Environment in Livestock Farming
VERA
You might also be interested in this
On this page you will find some information about our work, an overview of our projects with European and international relevance as well as hyperlinks which will take you directly to our publications in English. In case you have any questions or are interested in cooperation, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Our association
The Kuratorium für Technik und Bauwesen in der Landwirtschaft e.V. (KTBL) is a registered association comprising approximately 400 collaborators from agriculture and the related science, trade and industry, public administration and consulting. The KTBL is institutionally supported by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL). The Governing Bodies of the Association are the General Assembly of Members, the Board and the Main Committee. Every four years, the General Assembly elects members of the Board and the Main Committee from its ranks. The Main Committee makes decisions concerning the guidelines of the KTBL´s work.
The associations office is located in Darmstadt (Germany) where approximately 100 employees work in different areas of expertise, spearheaded by Dr. Martin Kunisch, the Managing Director.
What we do
As a non-profit organisation we promote future-oriented agriculture by offering advice to all the stakeholders involved, and providing information and facts. The KTBL is institutionally supported by the BMEL, however, we also work on projects supported by third party funds from a wide range of donors.
We have about 50 working groups, each composed of 8 to 12 experts working on a voluntary basis.
How does KTBL work?
We shape the agriculture of the future in a consumer-oriented, socially acceptable and environmentally friendly manner.
Photovoltaic systems - correct alignment of modules
In 2021, Werner Schmid, a member of the KTBL- working group "Energy", examined 480 southern German photovoltaic systems with regard to their orientation. The aim of the data analysis was to identify the "optimal" module alignment. For this purpose, the connections between "module orientation" and annual yield, but also the distribution of the annual yield over the individual months (annual generation load profile) were examined.
The results show that previous recommendations are partly outdated and potential for the German energy transition remains untapped. With a different module orientation, the valuable energy yield could be increased in winter.
Download summary (PDF, 1,4 MB)
Go to full article (German version)
Participation in international committees on climate protection
The KTBL participates in the work of several expert groups of the "United Nations Economic Commission for Europe" (UNECE). The Geneva Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) is the framework for our research.
The primary focus of the Task Force on Emission Inventories and Projections (TFEIP) is to keep the methods for drawing up emission inventories for air pollutants up to date and improve them. The Thünen-Institute and the KTBL have drafted a joint revision proposal for the chapter on biogas production which was considered in the air pollutant emission inventory guidebook 2019 of the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP).
The KTBL represents the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) in the VERA expert groups “Housing Systems” and “Land Applied Manure”. VERA is an acronym that stands for „Verification of Environmental Technologies for Agricultural Production“, whose objective is to establish an international framework for testing and verification of mitigation technologies for the reduction of gaseous emissions based on test protocols.
The European Agricultural Gaseous Emissions Inventory Researchers Network – EAGER – is a core group of international scientists – Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland – trying to improve and harmonize national ammonia emission inventory calculations.
Representatives from the KTBL together with the Thünen-Institute (TI) participate in the work of the group on behalf of Germany.
Within the network we try to achieve a detailed overview of the present best available inventory techniques, compile and harmonize the available knowledge on emission factors and initiate a new generation of emission inventories that satisfies protocol requirements. The purpose of the group is to support harmonized emission inventory activities on the European scale (input for UN/ECE expert group, CORINAIR etc.) and to review and coordinate emission model development activities.
If you need more information about the project or any of its deliverables, please contact Mr Sebastian Wulf or Mrs. Brigitte Eurich-Menden.
KTBL as your partner for EU projects
Are you looking for a collaborator on an EU project? Have you thought of the KTBL as a potential partner? Perhaps you are interested in a project partner from Germany, but are not sure whom to contact? Contact us. Our colleague Mr Henning Eckel will be happy to help you.
AGROVOC
AGROVOC is a multilingual thesaurus covering all areas of interest to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The vocabulary currently consists of over 36,000 concepts with more than 700,000 terms translated in 35 different languages. An international team is in charge of editing. Together with Leibniz-Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF), the KTBL publishes German translations.
In addition to the numerous corrections and broadening of terms translated into German, the KTBL hosted the Editors‘ Meeting 2019 which took place from 24 to 25 June 2019 at our premises in Darmstadt, comprising 33 participants from 16 countries who represented a total of 13 foreign languages. During the meeting, we examined the possibilities for the classification of concepts into different hierarchical systems and taxonomies, and we discussed aspects and open topics pertaining to the approach to data maintenance that different editors take.
If you need more information about the project or any of its deliverables, please contact Mr Daniel Martini.
Glossary of Terms on livestock and manure management
The compilation of the first edition was funded by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), UK and the Swiss College of Agriculture. The revision and expansion for this second edition was undertaken within the framework of the EU-Project "Best Available Techniques for European Intensive Livestock Farming – Support for the Implementation of the IPPC-Directive" (BAT-Support) funded by European Commission, DG Research, within the 6th Framework Programme of RTD.
The overall objective of this project was to develop an integrated and consistent methodology for the classification of livestock housing systems including storage, treatment and spreading of the manures produced, in terms of "Best Available Techniques".
If you need more information about the project or any of its deliverables, please contact Mr Henning Eckel.
LANDTECHNIK - Agricultural Engineering
LANDTECHNIK is a scientific Open Access journal that publishes studies and results from applied research in agricultural engineering. The journal is peer-reviewed and published in German and English. Topics range from the development of methods and the use of technology in crop production, animal husbandry, energy production to environmental engineering and information technology.
We support scientists and young professionals from research institutes, industry and agricultural engineering companies in the publication of their projects in order to further develop interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge in agricultural engineering.
If you need more information about the project or any of its deliverables, please contact Ms Barbara Meyer.
Recent Developments on welfare-oriented Animal Husbandry
The German Veterinary Medical Society organizes the annual conference on the topic of ethology in animal husbandry. The conference proceedings "Recent Developments on Welfare-oriented Animal Husbandry", published after every conference, have become an integral part of the KTBL publications. You can download the conference proceedings containing English abstracts free of charge.
The history of the Freiburg conference is thoroughly documented in the KTBL's publication series. You can use the search function on this website to navigate the content of the publications more easily. Enter your key words and find out in which conference proceedings volumes they appear. We are delighted to be a part of this conference and wish you pleasant browsing.
If you need more information about the project or any of its deliverables, please contact Ms Kathrin Huesmann.
Economic efficiency of dairy goat farming
How economical is dairy goat farming and what influence does the stock size have on success? Dr. Isabel Sand and her colleagues from the KTBL discussed this question at the 1st International Congress on Sheep and Goat on 15 and 16 October 2020. The lecture was recorded on video.
If you need more information about goats or any of its deliverables, please contact Ms Isabel Sand.
Standard Gross Margins
Are you interested in statistical data about German agriculture? Every year, the KTBL calculates the standard gross margins (SGM) for 38 German regions - states and administrative districts - on the basis of the current prices of the quantities produced and the inputs used for all the production processes in agricultural and accounting statistics (agriculture, horticulture, fruit growing and viticulture). In addition to the standard gross margin, yields and animal performances, producer prices and individual direct costs are also displayed. Data are available as a time series in a free web application, broken down by production method and region.
If you need more information about the project or any of its deliverables, please contact Dr Jan Ole Schroers.
KTBL/VDLUFA Proficiency Test Biogas
Inter-laboratory tests play a significant role in the quality monitoring of laboratories, as the participating laboratories can objectively demonstrate their performance. To enhance the analytical performance of biogas laboratory, the KTBL and the Association of German Agricultural Analytic and Research Institutes (VDLUFA) organise annual proficiency test biogas for the scope biogas and methane potential, macro ingredients and residual gas potential determination.
If you need more information about the KTBL/VDLUFA Proficiency Test Biogas or any of its deliverables, please contact Mr Mark Paterson.
IEA Bioenergy Task 37
The batch test is a method which helps to assess biogas or methane potential of a given substrate. The IEA-Report "Value of batch tests for biogas potential analysis" of Bioenergy Task 37 gives an overview on information to be gained from the test, the relation to other test methods and the limitations of the test. It also includes a chapter on the KTBL/VDLUFA-Proficiency Test Biogas.
If you need more information about the KTBL/VDLUFA Proficiency Test Biogas or any of its deliverables, please contact Mr Mark Paterson.
agriXchange - a platformon data exchange in agriculture
Information sharing is the key to data exchange harmonizing. The research project agriXchange was carried out from 2010 to 2012 funded by the European Union’s 7th framework programme. It involved 15 partners from 11 countries. One of the main goals of this project was to create awareness of existing solutions and on-going development work, and to allow introduction of new or improved solutions. It is a complex task in the agri-food sector, because of the many aspects and dimensions that are involved. There is also a regional heterogeneity in the technical systems and information management challenges among the European countries. Therefore, a reference framework for interoperability was developed and designed.
If you need more information about the project or any of its deliverables, please contact Mr Daniel Martini.
European Biogas Initiative
The EU-AGRO-BIOGAS project – funded by the 6th Framework Programme for Research, Technology and Demonstration – was finalised in January 2010. After the completion of the final reporting with the EU Commission, all final reports and deliverables were published here. You can read the final report and find out more about the project deliverables here.
If you need more information about the project or any of its deliverables, please contact Ms Ursula Roth.
BioEnergy Farm 2
The goal of the EU-BioEnergy Farm 2 project, which was finalised in December 2016, was mainly to open the market in the participating countries for manure-based biogas production in small-scale anaerobic digestion plants.
Different ways to use the biogas have be analysed within these feasibility studies, such as producing electricity and heat with a CHP installation, gas upgrading for gas grid feed-in, producing heat in a biogas boiler and upgrading the biogas to transport fuel. Furthermore, the barriers to legal and financial framework were analysed, and valuable information for farmers and policy makers on manure-based biogas production in micro-scale digestion were developed. Within the project the farmers were informed about the existing options for micro-scale digesters and were assisted in checking the feasibility of a micro-scale digester on their farm.
If you need more information about the project or its deliverables, please contact Mr Mark Paterson.
ZINEG - The Low Energy Greenhouse
The overall objective of the ZINEG joint project, carried on between 2009 and 2014, was to improve and further develop technologies that can reduce the consumption of fossil fuels used to heat greenhouses for plant production and thus reduce fossil CO2 emissions to zero or close to a zero. The transfer of knowledge and developments into practice, which have arisen from this system-oriented approach, will be particularly important in the coming years.
If you need more information about the project or its deliverables, please contact Mr Christian Reinhold.
GODAN-DO: ethical and legal aspects of Open Data
The GODAN-DO project was established to support the secretariat of the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) Initiative and is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) with the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food (BLE) as the lead project partner within the framework of international cooperation. DO stands for Data Ownership.
The aim of the present project is to develop approaches to solutions that would enable a fair distribution of the benefits data provide and increase the motivation for the use of Open Data. Regulations and guidelines on Open Data in agriculture, data protection, data security and data ownership will be collected and analysed to accomplish the project goal. In addition to the aforementioned project activities, one of the essential project tasks is international cooperation and networking with other organizations through the participation in conferences, online seminars and other events.
Conference. Construction, Engineering and Environment in Livestock Farming
Animal husbandry is caught between the conflicting contexts of animal welfare, environmental protection and food-safety. In order to make the overall debate more objective, scientific research and discussions among experts are necessary. This is why the KTBL and the Max Eyth Society for Agricultural Engineering – subunit of the Association of German Engineers (VDI-MEG) together with various partner universities and colleges invite you to take part in the biennial conference "Construction, Technology and Environment in Agricultural Animal Husbandry".
Perhaps you would like to contribute to this conference with an interesting paper or a poster? Or attend the next conference as a visitor?
If you need more information about the project or its deliverables, please contact Ms Anne-Katrin Steinmetz.
VERA
VERA is a multinational collaboration between Denmark, The Netherlands, Germany and Flanders for testing and verifying environmental technologies within the agricultural sector. The purpose of VERA is to enhance a well-functioning international market for environmental technologies to help solve the environmental challenges of agricultural production.
The framework for test and verification is based on test protocols that have been developed. Technologies that have been tested according to one of the VERA test protocols can obtain a VERA Verification Statement. A VERA Verification Statement secures documentation for the environmental efficiency and operational stability of a technology and is an important step when introducing a technology to the market.
If you need more information about the project or its deliverables, please contact Mr Ewald Grimm.