Anoush Ficiciyan’s fascination for the diversity of the world and development cooperation began at school with a geography book in her hand. With her host family in the Bolivian Brazil nut region, she decided to study agricultural sciences with a focus on the economics of the agricultural and food sector as well as “Crop Science” in the Master’s programme after her return to Bonn, Germany. The fascination remained, and as a member of a BMBF junior research group, she investigated the effects of common property-based, and organically bred vegetable varieties on agrobiodiversity and ecosystem services in the Department of Agroecology at the University of Göttingen from 2016. She completed this work with her doctorate in summer 2020. At the Andreas Hermes Academy, Anoush Ficiciyan now supervises international cooperation projects in our partner countries India and Uganda. The role of women in farmers’ organisations and the linking of our work with universities and colleges is also an important focus.