Rate My Professor Renske Hijbeek

Renske Hijbeek is an associate professor in the Plant Production Systems group at Wageningen University & Research. She earned her PhD from Wageningen University in 2017 with a thesis titled 'On the role of soil organic matter for crop production in European arable farming'. Her research centers on nutrient management in arable farming systems across temperate regions and the tropics. She explores strategies to enhance soil fertility, such as recycling organic waste streams and cultivating legumes, to maximize environmental benefits including reduced greenhouse gas emissions and minimized agricultural land use. Hijbeek's expertise includes agricultural systems, crop production, agroecosystems, nitrogen response, soil fertility management, resource efficiency, soil organic matter, and human ecology. She teaches three MSc courses: 'Analysing Sustainability of Farming Systems', 'Advanced Agronomy', and 'The Carbon Dilemma - A Soil Perspective'.

With over 3,149 citations on Google Scholar and 97 research outputs, including 41 articles, Hijbeek has made significant contributions to sustainable agriculture. Notable publications include 'Carbon for soils, not soils for carbon' (Global Change Biology, 2023), 'Regenerative Agriculture: An agronomic perspective' (Outlook on Agriculture, 2021), 'What drives farmers to increase soil organic matter? Insights from the Netherlands' (Soil Use and Management, 2018), and recent papers such as 'Agronomic constraints limit the climate change mitigation potential of winter cover crops in Europe' (European Journal of Agronomy, 2026) and 'A variable residue: Meta-analysis on the nitrogen fertilizer replacement value of anaerobic digestate' (European Journal of Agronomy, 2026). She received the 2nd prize in the 2019 Brain Chambers international award for early career researchers in crop nutrition and the Institutional Collaboration Award from the graduate school Production Ecology and Resource Conservation (PE&RC) in 2019. Her work influences debates on regenerative farming, nutrient cycles, climate mitigation, and circular food systems.