Agriculture and Food Security

Dr. Amal Amin, from Egypt, holds a PhD by the Faculty of Science of the Cairo University. She is an associate professor at the National Research Center of Egypt and has taken part in many national and international conferences. Her research is about “Investment of agricultural wastes in different biomedical applications”. Although agricultural wastes may be considered as a renewable resource, they are systematically burnt, causing severe pollution and a tremendous waste of a valuable material. Her project at POLYMAT is directed to tackle this issue, intending to have a great environmental impact – by investing these wastes in eco-friendly ways- as well as a social one – by developing cost-effective applications for curing rice husk-.

Beatrice Muriithi, from Kenya, holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Bonn University, Germany, and is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Social Science and Impact Assessment Unit at the International Center for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Nairobi, Kenya. At the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, Dr. Murithi worked with the research Group on Applied Economics, Development and Political Economy on her project “Gender and impacts of Push-Pull Technology (PPT) on nutrition, input demand and saving: Evidence from East Africa”. The (PPT) Technology is a novel approach in pest management which uses a repellent intercrop and an attractive trap plant. She co-authored with her team at BGSE the peer review publication Adoption of Integrated Pest Management Strategy for Suppression of Mango Fruit flies in East Africa: An ex ante and ex post analysis in Ethiopia.

Sarah Mwangi, national of Kenya, earned her PhD in Bioinformatics, in the South African National Bioinformatics Institute, and a postdoctoral fellowship at Karolinska Institute in Sweden. In the University of Pretoria her research focuses on the bioinformatics aspects of the Avocado genomics and works with postgraduate students on all bioinformatics aspects of their projects. Together with researchers at the bioinformatics core facility at the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG), in Barcelona, Dr. Sarah Mwangi worked on the development of bioinformatics analytical workflows for the analysis of microRNAs that confer resistance to infection in plants, with a special focus on Avocado. The results obtained in these studies will assist in understanding the molecular mechanisms of miRNAs in Avocado plants and their impact during stress response.

Dr. Mbolle, from Nigeria, holds a PhD by the University of Nigeria Nsukka. She is a Senior lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Extension in Nsukka, and has a great interest in climate change, rural development, gender studies, agricultural innovation and poverty. Her research proposal is titled “Gender dynamics of Investment on Climate-Smart Agriculture among Smallholder Farm Households in Nigeria” and aims to increase both women’s incomes and decision-making power in order to place them on a better social standing in their communities. In fact, she is convinced that trained and empowered women will promote the use of climate smart agriculture tools and meet the UNSDGs in the long run. She carries out her research at Graduate School of Economics and Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology in Barcelona thanks to the funding of ENDESA.

Dr. Charlotte Chibuzor Ndiribe is a Senior Lecturer in Ecology at the Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Science, University of Lagos, Nigeria. Her field of research is Phylogenetic and Pollution Ecology. She is developing cutting-edge technologies in “Ecological Waste Compliance (EcoWac)”, which are novel futuristic solutions to tackle plastic and solid waste pollution to ensure environmental hygiene and ecosystem preservation in response to the climate change crises. She is hosted by DeustoTech research center in Bilbao thanks to the funding of the Provincial Government of Bizkaia.

Oduntan Oluwakemi is a lecturer at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. Her area of specialization is Agricultural Production Economics. The title of her research is “Effect of Resource Productivity on Welfare Status of Cassava-Based Farmers in Southwest Nigeria”, and she conducts it in the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics. Her research “will provide a basis for recommending suitable solutions to improving resource productivity of cassava-based farmers and livelihoods/welfare of cassava-based farmers in the study area”.

Dr. Toyosi Igejongbo holds a Ph.D in Fisheries Management and works as a lecturer at the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture Technology of The Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. She is currently on a Scientific Staff Exchange Fellowship at Department of Marine Sciences, University of Ghana. She has specific interest in mitigating the challenges facing the aquatic ecosystem thereby increasing food security. Her research project at Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands, Las Palmas expands on this interest by studying physical and biogeochemical processes of the marine ecosystem and the resultant impact on marine diversities. Dr. Toyosi´s fellowship is sponsored by the Government of the Canary Islands.

Sifau Adenike Adejumo is a Nigerian lecturer in the Department of Crop Protection and Environmental Biology at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. She received her Master and PhD in Environmental Biology with a specialization in Environmental Crop Physiology. Her research has focused on understanding the molecular and genetic mechanisms of heavy metal tolerance, detoxification and hyperaccumulation in plants. She has developed a method for stress amelioration in crop plants using compost. At the Spanish National Center for Biotechnology in Madrid, she will work to identify the genes for arsenic perception, tolerance and accumulation in Duckweeds. She anticipates the project will enhance nutrient uptake by food crops even in the presence of toxic heavy metals. Her fellowship is sponsored by ENDESA.

Eucharia Oluchia Nwaichi, from Nigeria, holds a PhD in environmental toxicology from the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. In 2019, she was selected as a fellow by the Next Einstein Forum, a highly selective program that recognizes Africa’s best young scientists. At the Agrifood Campus of International Excellence she will be studying the clarifying agents involved in the production of beer, which is the fifth most consumed beverage in the world. She anticipates that her research will illuminate the health effects of those agents on consumers as well as improve and optimize the use of agricultural resources for beer production. She is currently full professor by the University of Port Harcourt Nigeria.

Dr. Elizabeth Kizito has a PhD in Plant breeding obtained from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, and she is currently a senior lecturer and the head of the Department of Agricultural and Biological Sciences at the Uganda Christian University, Mukono. She is passionate about improving the plight of the indigenous African vegetables, especially the Solanaceae family, which have great potential in meeting the nutritional needs in Africa, and about improving the situation of many women farmers of a small scale involved in its production, in terms of income generation and food security in Uganda and the region. She undertook her research in the Center for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona.

Dr. Sarra Arbaoui, a Tunisian research assistant within the High Agronomic Institute of Chott Mariem, obtained her PhD in Agricultural Sciences. In 2014 she won the L’Oreal- UNESCO award for women in Science, and in May 2016 she was selected to follow leadership training Women for the future in Sciences Po Paris. In the Spanish National Center for Biotechnology (CNB), she has been working on biological ways to improve the crop and adapting it to climate change using microorganisms. After her fellowship, she provided a module titled “Sustainable food systems: a Mediterranean perspective” by SDSN Mediterranean (http://unsdsn.org/) for the MOOC Sustainable farming systems under environmental and climatic constraints for the SDG Academy (https://courses. sdgacademy.org/). She has written with her Spanish team the book chapter “Arsenic, the silent threat. New phytoremediation strategies for contaminated soils and waters”. She is also a member of the COTEC network of experts.

Dr. Ebel is an Assistant Professor at the Institut Supérieur de Biotechnologie de Sfax since 2004. She teaches Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering, Plant Biotechnology and Microbial Genetics. She works in a new project aiming to investigate the role of a gene in a durum wheat. This gene acts putatively at the interface of stress perception and cell cycle to maintain cell division in meristematic tissues despite adverse conditions. After her very productive research at the Spanish National Center for Biotechnology (CNB, www.cnb.csic.es), she published 3 articles, one of them in the scientific journal PLOS ONE “Characterization of wheat (Triticum aestivum) TIFY family and role of Triticum Durum TdTIFY11a in salt stress tolerance” https://doi.org/10.1371/ journal. pone.0200566.

Dr. Lobna Hajji is currently working as permanent researcher at Regional Centre of Agricultural Research of Sidi Bouzid (CRRA-Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia). She is a plant pathologist, working on fungal diseases affecting crops (diagnosis, pathogenicity and management). Her main research interests are how to improve the plant resilience towards fungal diseases (biotic stress) by using regenerative approaches like compost and soil microorganisms. Biological control of phytopathogenic fungi by beneficial microorganisms is an alternative approach of chemical fungicides for the benefit of sustainable agriculture, and safe environment and human health. She carries out her research at the Spanish National Centre of Biotechnology, Madrid thanks to the funding of Abertis Foundation.

Maryke Labuschagne is a professor in Plant Breeding at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. She leads the South African Research Chairs Initiatives Chair on Disease Resistance and Quality in Field Crops. Her research interest is the genetic improvement of staple crops such as wheat, maize, sorghum, root crops and legumes for nutritional value, especially under changing climate conditions. This research can contribute towards food security in poor African communities. She carries out her fellowship at the Instituto Agricultura Sostenible (CSIC) in Córdoba working on legumes with prof. Diego Rubiales thanks to the funding of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).

Dr. Brittany Bunce has experience leading research into agricultural livelihoods, change in agrarian societies, food security and the political economy of agriculture in rural African contexts. She completed her PhD at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa and also has an MSc in Social Policy and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BSocSci in History and Politics from the University of Cape Town. She is passionate about contributing to sustainable development and wellbeing. She is a Research Associate at Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) University of the Western Cape and elsewhere she has led research programmes on sustainable agriculture, food security and public health initiatives. Bunce was also Research Project Manager on a high-profile evaluation tendered for the Office of the South African Presidency, of a national programme: ‘Implementation Evaluation of the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP)’ and other evaluations. More recently she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Institute for Global Sustainable Development at the University of Sheffield. She has also worked for civil society organisations and research institutes in the public health sector. She worked for: the Black Sash Human Rights Organisation as Project Manager, as a Senior Researcher for the South African Medical Research Council on evaluations of public health initiatives and for the Global Fund. Her project is about «Understanding the Epistemic Communities Underpinning Technological Revolutions in African Agriculture» at ICTA-UAB, Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.