Jeremy Haggar

Biography

Professor Jeremy Haggar joined the University of Greenwich in January 2011. He was previously head of the tree crops programme at the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Centre (CATIE) in Nicaragua where he worked for 11 years co-ordinating coffee research and development projects across Central America. He managed projects worth nearly US$10 million financed by donors such as World Bank, European Union, Inter American Development Bank, and the Norwegian Foreign Ministry. These projects involved the development of sustainable agricultural practices for coffee production, business capacity in co-operatives, and assessment of the ecosystem services from coffee agroforestry systems. The projects contributed to improvements in the livelihoods of approximately 10,000 coffee producing families across Central America. Prior to this, from 1996 to 2000, Professor Haggar was research co-ordinator in Mexico for the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) leading participatory research on the design of agroforestry systems as alternatives to slash-and-burn agriculture in the Yucatan Peninsula. Between 1994 and 1995 he worked as forestry co-ordinator for the Organization for Tropical Studies in Costa Rica evaluating native tree species for reforestation of degraded pastures. From 1991 to 1994, Professor Haggar conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Florida assessing how ecosystem processes affected agro-ecosystem productivity. Prior to this he undertook PhD research in the botany department of the University of Cambridge on the effects of legume trees on nutrient availability to associated crops.

Research Interest

Professor Haggar's research interests are focused on the understanding tradeoffs between agricultural production and ecosystem services, and how to facilitate sustainable agricultural development in developing countries. Addressing these questions he is Research Director of the Sustainable Agricultural Intensification Research and Learning Alliance in Africa programme funded by DFID