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He wants to create the agricultural systems of the future

Henrik Hauggaard-Nielsen has a foot in two very different fields when he conducts research in close collaboration with Danish farmers.
Henrik Hauggaard-Nielsen


Many Danish farmers do not have much respect for clever researcher types, who use words like sustainabile development, climate change mitigation and environmental impacts. They represent rules, restrictions and limitations that most farmers prefer to avoid.

But this is now the reality that Professor in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Henrik Hauggaard-Nielsen finds himself in, although he admits that he doesn’t always approach the farmers in the field or on their farms as much as he would actually like. But when he is out there, where research meets reality, the prejudices of both parties are often dispelled:

"We experience enormous openness and courtesy from the farmers when we tell them that we actually want to hear about the challenges they face and learn from their experiences. Many of them feel misunderstood and misjudged, but we have been able to meet them constructively with respect for their practical understanding and business conditions, without displaying condescension or prejudice towards them. We have also encountered resistance and uncertainty regarding what kind of agenda we have, but we have always managed to explain why we are also interested in, for example, soil fertility, robust cropping systems according to climatic change extreme events and sustainable development within urban-rural interactions” says Henrik Hauggaard-Nielsen.
 

Agriculture