dr. BM (Benedikt) Haug

My name is Benedikt Haug and I am a researcher at Wageningen Plant Breeding with a focus on breeding for biodiverse, circular, and multifunctional field cropping systems.
I firmly believe that our current food system requires redesign. Change needs to happen on a policy and regime level, but also on lower integration levels like the cropping systems level. My research focusses mainly on the crop system level as I am convinced that well performing innovations can help to bring about change in higher integration levels of the food system. Plant breeding can be a catalyst for change in this context as the lack of genotypes and (breeding) methodology can be a barrier in the implementation and adoption of new cropping systems. I therefore use plant breeding and principles of agroecology to develop more biodiverse, circular, and multifunctional approaches. I focus on arable crops, mainly pulses and cereals, but have also interest in other crops like green manure crops. My research toolbox includes quantitative genetics, field and on-farm experimentation, state of the art genotyping and phenotyping as well as innovative statistical approaches and a focus on the interaction of genotypes with the soil food-web.
Some examples on what my research focusses on:

Breeding for...

• cultivar mixtures;

• organic agricultre;

• mixed cropping;

• strip cropping;

• partially shaded systems (agroforestry systems, agrivoltaics);

• optimized plant holobionts;

Biography:

• 2009 BSc Agricultural Biology, Hohenheim University (D)

• 2012 M.Sc. Crop Sciences (Major Plant Breeding and Seed Science) at Hohenheim University, and Umeå Plant Science Centre, SLU (D, SWE)

• 2012 - 2017 Cereal breeder (triticale) at Getreidezüchtung Peter Kunz (CH)

• 2017 - 2021 PhD thesis at FiBL and INRAe (ReMIX project) (CH, F)

• 2022 Post-Doc at FiBL (PROMISE project) (CH)

• 2022 - 2024 Lecturer at the Centre for Crop Systems Analysis and Plant Production Systems at WUR (NL)

• Since 2023 Small scale farmer

• Since 2024 Researcher at the Plant Breeding department of WUR (NL)

• Biosaat GmbH (29-8-2022/31-12-2099)