Dr. Govaerts specializes in the fields of bioscience engineering and soil sciences. He is renowned for pioneering, implementing, and inspiring transformational changes for farmers and consumers in meeting the sustainable development challenges. He brings together multi-disciplinary science and development teams to integrate sustainable, multi-stakeholder and sector strategies that generate innovation and change in the agri-food systems. His initiatives, excellence in science for impact and the partnerships he inspired have resulted in improved nutrition, nature conservation, and national and international resilience and food security.
Govaerts sets out an integrated approach of excellent science for impact, carried out by partnerships with a strong emphasis on capacity building. He is known for his energy, vision and innovation in food products and production especially for small rural farms. He combines the research of the academy through the practices engaged in real-world organizations, utilizing 21st-century social networking systems to move forward in his efforts. His work is geared toward transforming subsistence agriculture and failed farming systems into productive and sustainable production units. He is considered to be a current major innovator in the agro-sustainable movement embracing modern practices while integrating traditional farmer knowledge and efforts worldwide as a means to influence and guide the future of farming. These efforts are recognized as critical to rural livelihoods, food safety, nutrition, nature conservation, and regional and national security.
Together with a group of scientists, trainers, extension agents, collaborative farmers, and communications and technology specialists, Govaerts developed a vision inspired by Norman Borlaug’s motto “Take it to the Farmer” combining the right seed, with the right conservation agriculture production practice imbedded in an integrated market while recognizing and integrating farmer knowledge.
Govaerts has co-authored over 90 peer-reviewed publications. He is a member of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University, and won the Norman Borlaug Field Award 2014 from the World Food Prize Foundation. In 2020, Govaerts was elected as a Fellow by The American Society of Agronomy (ASA) for his outstanding contributions to the field of agronomy. He holds a Ph.D. in Bioscience Engineering – Soil Science; a master’s degree in Soil Conservation and Tropical Agriculture; and a bachelor’s degree in Bioscience Engineering, all from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium.
