Welcoming YPARD Germany Representative: Johannes Dreer

We are delighted to welcome our very first YPARD Germany Country representative: Johannes Dreer

Johannes is a Master’s graduate in economics and business administration from the Fernuniversität in Hagen. He was raised, and still lives on his family farm, where he learnt the basics of farming and rural life. From 1998 until 2001, together with his father, he managed the family dairy farm of 40 milk cows in a 50ha agricultural land, before reducing the farming business to just managing the owned land without keeping livestock. Today he manages grasslands and does apiculture. 

In 2001, he started studying economics and business administration to get an overall background of the economic life. After graduating in 2006 with an economics degree and in 2008 with a business administration Master’s degree from the Fernuniversität in Hagen, he worked as a freelancer for research institutes in the field of agriculture and rural development such as IfLS/ Frankfurt and LfL/ München to backup his consulting startup business Hof und Leben GmbH (HuL)" for farmers in Southern Germany. 

The HuL startup was launched in 2009 after a detailed business planning process. It is a private independent enterprise designed to provide consultations for farmers in Southern Germany. Johannes and his co-founder work side by side with farmers to increase the benefits on the farm in areas such as optimizing production structure or increasing share in value addition along the food chain (food, feed, fiber resources for industries). Besides consulting, HuL is also engaged in projects on the European level that are focused on additional capacity building and training for farmers in fields of multifunctional farming, succession, cooperation, innovation, etc.

Through his daily work in consulting farmers, European projects and his own farming activities, he expresses that, he has firsthand experience with the direct and positive effects of sustainable farming for rural areas and for society as a whole. He understands that sustainable farming faces many challenges and that there are many things to be changed, rethought, adapted and done for the future needs of this sector. This is not only in farming itself but also in circumstances of farming, nutrition habits as well as energy and resources habits together with the respective value chains.

In his work and life, Johannes is aiming at an agriculture with multifunctional and highly self-driven businesses along with adding value in the agricultural chain, keeping regions vivid and attractive, and maintaining job possibilities in rural areas – respecting present and future generation’s capacity of resources. As an entrepreneur himself, he highly appreciates creativity, innovations and new methods of farming as well as development from qualified traditional agricultural concepts.

In 2014 after getting to know the YPARD Ukraine representative Kristina Kuznetsova, he learnt the value of YPARD’s work, its network and activities. He considers that YPARD shows the capacity to link young farmers and agricultural academics worldwide and on regional level.

With his personal and professional background in agriculture, he wants to support YPARD Europe on a national and regional level. As the country representative for Germany, he aims to build stronger connections between young professionals in Germany and YPARD Europe with other German institutions to be able to tap into the ongoing discussions and debates on the future of farming and the role young people have in it.

We can’t wait to hear more from the Youth-in-Agriculture in Germany as we trust that YPARD Germany will be successful in mobilizing the youth through Johannes’ leadership.

Welcome on board Johannes Dreer!

If you are from or based in Germany, and want to get involved in YPARD Germany activities, please contact Johannes at 该邮件地址已受到反垃圾邮件插件保护。要显示它需要在浏览器中启用 JavaScript。.