Prof. Dr. Folkard Asch

Biologist by training, I hold a Ph. D. in plant physiology from the University of Hamburg and a Habilitation in plant physiology / agroecology of the University of Bonn.

In 2007 I accepted the chair for Crop Water Stress Management in the Tropics and Subtropics at the Hans-Ruthenberg-Institute of the Agricultural Faculty of the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart.

From 2001 to 2007 I held the  position as Assistant Professor in  Prof. M. Becker's group at the University of Bonn, Institute for Plant Nutrition conducting research in (Sub)tropical Plant Nutrition.

From 1999  to 2001, I joined the University of Copenhagen in the Laboratory for Agrohydrology and Bioclimatology within the framework of a project on the investigation of important factors involved in the regulation of drought-stress in C4 and C3 species. That project focused mainly on maize and rice.

Between 1992 and 1999 I worked in various locations in Africa specializing on stress physiology of tropical crops, particularly rice.

My research focuses on crop responses to abiotic stresses such as salinity, iron toxicity, drought, and temperature as related to climatic parameters including modeling and systems analyses. Recently my group started to focus also on grassland ecology and climate change as well as "skyfarming" as a contribution to "Farming Systems in the Digital Age". Currently I am concentrating on stress-climate interactions with emphasis on relative air humidity effects on plant responses to drought, iron toxicity and salinity in relation to genotype adaptation and modeling.