International partner information

The Rural Economy and Agricultural Society – your partner in sustainable rural development 

Our Background  

Hushållningssällskapet –The Rural Economy and Agricultural Societies – is a modern and vibrant knowledge transfer organization with history extending all the way back to 1791. At that time agriculture was fundamental for the survival and prosperity of Sweden and its people. As famine was reality then, there was immediate demand for knowledge transfer, research and development to secure the food production. 

Today, we are still that bridge between research and development and rural enterprises. Our staff in advisory and education services, field trials and research and development all share the common goal of creating a prosperous and vibrant future in agriculture and rural communities in Sweden. 

You find our clients in agriculture and food production as well as the forestry sector. Most of our clients are rurally based, while others are using our rural resources to create business. Our clients range from family farms, agricultural colleges and universities to our public services. 

Besides offering advisor service to rural businesses (mainly farmers), we own a number of agricultural vocation education facilities, laboratories and projects, mainly Swedish funded projects. We also conduct research, field trials and much more.  

We are very proud of our origin and base in the rural economies, where sustainable interaction with nature is central. Our future is in our students and sustainable communities that thrive by development, profitability and better businesses for our clients. Every day we meet clients and students that wish to develop their skills by taking part of our knowledge and methods. Often the focus is on improving efficiency of production and improved profitability, but never without personal growth and development of the business. 

15 independent societies 

Hushållningssällskapet consists of 15 regional independent societies that together covers all of Sweden. In total we are over 1 100 employees and approximately 450 of these are working as advisors and therefore meeting customers such as farmers, forest-owners, municipalities on a daily basis. The other large sector is agricultural upper secondary schools and higher vocational education (Swedish YH). 

Project collaboration

We are actively seeking partners within: 

• Sustainability, robustness and resilience of agriculture and food production 

• Development the future advisory service for agriculture, forestry and rural enterprises. 

• AKIS collaboration in any form 

• Agricultural education, Setting up next generation of farmers for the future.
  With increase capacity and quality in the education. Dealing with more technology, sustainability and business oriented focus in the education. 

• Field Trials of seeds, fertilizers and other products 

• Innovation, for instance AI-solutions for advisors and farmers 

• And more 

Examples of current projects, procurements or other initiatives 

• AgTech Challenge – Pitch contest with support for ag-tech start-ups. 

• Tech-Demo – Project that is doing national wide technical demonstrations of new agtech 

• Field Trails – On 10 stations all over Sweden we test different varieties of seeds, grain, grass, vegetables, irrigation, fertilizers, cropping methods, silage. Under farm-like conditions. All our trails are independent and on a research-level. 

• Grow Equally – 17% of the Swedish farm-owners are female.  There are problems with the equality in farming. We are working on fixing it. 

• Partner in Climate Smart Advisor, Horizon funded. 

• FarmerTime & School on the Farm – Two concepts for introducing young students to food production.
  FarmerTime uses regular video meetings with farmers; “School on the Farm” offers a full-day visit with hands-on activities such as churning butter, grinding grain into flour, and preparing a light meal. 

• Carbon Credits using of Biochar in Farming: Developing a certified carbon credit system. Funded by EIP-Agri Sweden 

• And much more 

Digital tools and services we deliver to rural entrepreneurs in Sweden 

• E-learning platform, for cost and time effective nationwide spread of knowledge, and also practical with 24/7 access to new knowledge without the need for the farmers to drive or meet up. 

• Crop-Profitability – A economic follow up on field level where every activity on the field is calculated against the value of the crop. A return-on-investment calculation. 

• Economic-database, where farmers financial statements and productivity numbers are benchmarked anonymously for increased insight in what each farming operations strengths and development areas are. 

• Field Sample Analytics and Delivery system. We have an online delivery system for farmers to study their field samples and also download files related to precision farming. Together with harvest data, field trials data and levels of input there is a strong case for analytics. 

• Innovative analytic model for comparing a municipality production of food compared to the municipality´s consumption of food with hands on analysis of measures to increase the robustness of the local food production system. This is a step towards a digital twin for the food value chain. 

• And more 

We welcome collaboration through Horizon Europe, Interreg, Erasmus+, and other funding programmes. 

Let’s explore synergies – contact us for an initial meeting! 

Rural Economy and Agricultural Society 

Profile 

• Full legal Swedish HS Hushållningssällskapens Service AB
• English name: The Rural Economy and Agricultural Society
• Acronym: HS-SWE  or REAS-SWE
• Department: Development
• Type of organisation: Non-govermental organisation
• Main sector of activity: Advice and knowledge transfer to farmers
• Physical adress: Drottninggatan 95B
• Adress, postal: Box 451
• Postal code: 104 39 Stockholm, Sweden
• Country: Sweden
• Website: www.hushallningssallskapet.se 

Legal representative 

First name: Bo
Last name: Selerud
Position: Confederation Director
Email: bo.selerud@hushallningssallskapet.se
Phone: +46 70 200 97 75 

Contact person Grants Office 

Name: Nicklas Bengtsson
Position: Development Leader
Email: nicklas.bengtsson@hushallningssallskapet.se
Phone: +46 709 643 008