Werner Doppler

Life and professional career

As son of a farmer and wine producer Werner Doppler managed the family farm on his own for some years. After this he studied Agriculture and Economics at the universities of Hohenheim and Kiel in Germany. He did his PhD in Economics under the guidance of Günther Weinschenck in 1974 in the field of Application of recursive linear mathematical models to analyze and predict regional development in the agricultural sector. He then joined the research team of Hans-Hartwig Ruthenberg as research scientist dealing with the development in the Tropics and Sub Tropics. In this period he spent research semesters at the University of Bradford/England and at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines. This period ended with the “Habilitation”, the German assessment for the qualification of a university professorship. From 1979 to 1981 he joined the University of Nairobi/ Kenya as Associate Professor until he got the position of Professor at the University of Hohenheim, Germany in the field of farm management in the tropics and sub tropics.

Werner Doppler married Dorothea Frank in 1970. They have two sons, Fabian and Leander, and a daughter Adriane.

Lectures and academic training

The main focus in teaching was the application of quantitative socioeconomic methods and holistic approaches in farming and rural development in developing countries. Werner Doppler gave lectures in Master’s and PhD programs at the universities of Hohenheim, Karlsruhe and Heidelberg/Germany and at the University of Nairobi/Kenya, University of Florence/Italy, Universities of Amman/Jordan, Bradford/U.K., Thai Nguyen and Hanoi/Vietnam as well as in the Lutheran University in Palmas/Brazil.

At the European Union level, Werner Doppler was involved in internationalizing the postgraduate university programs in accordance with the guidelines of the Bologna Process. During his time as Dean of Faculty at the University of Hohenheim he was responsible for the decisions, preparations and introduction of the international concept of BSc./MSc curricula and the European academic transfer system in 1997 as well as for the introduction of the first formalized international PhD program for students from developing countries in 1991. While he was director of the International PhD program in Hohenheim, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), 104 students from 33 different overseas countries finished their PhD degree. Under his direct supervision 57 from 25 countries did their PhD research.

Research

In farming systems research, Werner Doppler combines the descriptive and comparative approach represented by Hans-Hartwig Ruthenberg, who explains the development process by analyzing the past, with quantitative methods in agriculture and economic research (e.g. Earl O. Heady, R.H. Day, and G. Weinschenck). As a result, quantitative, systems models for simulating future rural development are available which allow measuring the impact of future strategies in development projects and developing countries.

In a further step, space in rural areas has become another dimension through information provided by integrating remote sensing in the methodological concept. With this, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) can be applied and the economic models for future development extended to comprehensive spatial rural development models, which allow a high degree of internalization of problems, processes and decisions.

The application of classical farm management in developing countries is expanded by social, ecological and cultural influences in decision-making of families with similar consequences in the evaluation of development strategies. Werner Doppler considers living standard of families as central at the micro level and defines it with economic, food and health related, social and dependency-on-resource-owner and risk criteria. At the level of the society in a rural area, rural welfare is applied and defined as the sum of the living standard of all social groups in the region plus ecological, social and cultural aspects considered relevant from a societal point of view. Socioeconomic analyses and assessments of future strategies may show different results at the micro or societal level and indicate conflicts which can be seen in ecological misuse of resources.

The relationship between family and society also shows a vertical link in decision-making and dependencies and may function as “bottom-up” or “top-down” between families, communes, ethnic groups, projects, markets, regional administration and even the national level. This is especially relevant for availability, use and prices/costs of land, water, labor, capital, social network and social security as well as skills and knowledge.

With all these extensions in at various levels of the methodology Werner Doppler aims at a holistic approach in analyzing the past and the present and forecasting the future, to better meet real life conditions of people and give more practical relevance to the quantification and assessment of impacts of future strategies.

The empirical research of Werner Doppler was exclusively related to developing countries. The research focus was on the impact of future problem-solving strategies on the living standard of families and rural welfare in the following fields:

In all research programs, the issues of food security, mobility and human migration, the regional administrative capacity as well as regulations in ownership/renting and hiring rights, regulations in market infrastructure and social services and the cultural framework have been elements in the concepts and their evaluation.

The research programs have been carried out in cooperation with seven international research centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and with 26 universities in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Publications

The research team of Werner Doppler published 25 books and 210 reviewed articles. The book on “Tropical Farming Systems Economics” published in 2013 summarizes research programs and outcome. Werner Doppler is also founder and co-editor of the series ”Farming and Rural Systems Economics”. There are 291 presentations at international conferences and workshops.

Selected books:

Selected online publications:

Consultancies

Werner Doppler was consultancy adviser to several institutions such as World Bank, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), European Commission and Gesellschaft für Internationale Zuammenarbeit (GIZ, formerly GTZ) and various ministries in Thailand and the Philippines. In total 42 consultancies have been carried out. The following is a representative selection of them:

National and international mandates

Literature