Anton Nowacki, ca. 1886 (Photograph: ETH-Bibliothek Zurich, Bildarchiv / Ludwig Zipfel)
The first three professors were soon appointed. Adolf Kraemer taught animal husbandry, Anton Nowacki received the first professorship for agronomy and crop cultivation, while Kraemer’s later son-in-law Ernst Schulze specialised in agrochemistry. It is worth noting that all three were men – and foreigners to boot. There were simply no female or Swiss candidates at the time for positions such as these. Nonetheless, the staff-student ratio was fantastic. The faculty consisted of just the three professors and five students. By 1875, a total of only 37 people had enrolled in the study programme. It wasn’t long before the first woman signed up: Maria Kovalik. A native of Russia, she completed her agricultural studies in 1877 after seven semesters, the very first woman to be awarded a degree by the Polytechnic Institute. Graduating in Agricultural Sciences in 1925, Lilly Leuthold was the first woman from Switzerland to follow in her footsteps. Another 67 years would pass before Silvia Dorn was elected Full Professor of Agricultural Sciences and Food Science at ETH Zurich in 1992.
All the same, ETH’s first agricultural scientists were unable to make any great progress. Although the Division of Agriculture was allotted 12 percent of ETH’s budget at the time, in 1871 this amounted to a mere 35,000 Swiss francs. The right to award doctorates, granted to ETH in 1909, was an important milestone in encouraging research in the agricultural sciences. As a result, in 1913, the first agricultural doctoral thesis on the “Physical properties of the equine hoof horn” made it into the history books. Emmanuel Frossard, Professor of Plant Nutrition at ETH since 1994, describes the early days of agricultural research as “invariably creative. It was conducted at an outstanding level. This made it possible to train young researchers who, in turn, had a formative influence on generations of academics.”
A broad range of disciplines
Despite a slow start, the subject area soon made great headway. Meanwhile, the former Department of Agriculture was constantly being restructured. Along with Frossard, Michael Kreuzer, Professor of Animal Nutrition, has the longest tenure at the Institute of Agricultural Sciences. He underlines the importance of the 2010 merger that combined the disciplines of livestock science and plant science in one institute. Finally, the Department of Agricultural and Food Science was split up in 2012. The Institute of Agricultural Sciences was integrated into the new Department of Environmental Systems Science – a decisive step in recognising agricultural sciences as a systemic science.
Today, the Institute comprises twelve professorships, with a further eight associated professorships from other departments. Although the focus is still on plant and livestock science, it also includes agricultural economics, sustainable agroecosystems and computer-based agroecosystem sciences.
“Agricultural sciences are not one single discipline, but a whole range. While the priority used to be ensuring sufficient agricultural production, now it is about optimising multifunctional agriculture in a way that protects the environment,” Frossard says. Apart from a dip in the early 2000s, the study course has proved popular. Each year, some 70 students begin the Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Sciences, half of them women.
Agriculture – an emotional field
Although Switzerland is no longer an agrarian state, farming and thus also agricultural sciences at ETH are still an extremely emotive subject, as shown by various recent episodes. At Expo.02, the sixth Swiss national exposition in 2002, ETH presented the crop plant maize in the special “Expoagricole” exhibition in Murten, garnering an overwhelming response from the public. By the same token, open days such as those in the AgroVet-Strickhof education and research centre regularly attract crowds of visitors.
