welcome new staff in FRESH
Hussein (Henry) Mvungi is working as a Project Marketing Officer with the WorldVeg team in Eastern and Southern Africa, Arusha, Tanzania through September 2018. He has an MSc in agricultural economics and focuses on marketing, statistics and socioeconomics.
Dr. Wolfram Spreer joined WorldVeg on 22 January 2018 as Production Horticulturist in the South Asia Regional Office, Hyderabad, India. His appointment is co-funded though GIZ’s CIM Integrated Experts Program. He holds a PhD in agricultural sciences from the University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim, Germany, and has extensive experience with irrigation technologies for tropical and subtropical fruits and vegetables.
Edoh Ognakossan Kukom (Togo) joined WorldVeg in November 2017 as the Production and Postharvest Specialist for the USAID-funded Mali Horticulture Scaling Project. Edoh has more than 7 years of experience in agricultural research working on postharvest management of staple crops. His research interests include participatory development, testing and transfer of innovations that focus on reducing losses and adding value along value chains of common staple foods. Prior to joining the World Vegetable Center, he was a research fellow under the RELOAD (Reduction of Postharvest Losses and Value Addition in East African Food Value Chains) project at icipe (Kenya). He also has done a variety of consultancy assignments with the Natural Resources Institutes, University of Greenwich under the African Postharvest Losses Information System (APHLIS) project. He previously worked as a research assistant in the Postharvest Management and Food Safety Department of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Benin.
Lutz Depenbusch (Germany) joined the World Vegetable Center in November 2017 to work in the Center’s impact evaluation team. Lutz obtained his PhD in Economics as part of the GlobalFood research training program at the University of Goettingen, funded by the German Research Foundation. As part of his PhD he conducted quantitative research on gender-based price discrimination in Central Kenyan vegetable markets. Lutz holds a Bachelor in Economics from the University of Erfurt and a Master of Arts in Development Economics from the University of Goettingen. He participated in exchange programs with St. Paul University/University of Ottawa in Canada, and the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa.
Maarten van Zonneveld (The Netherlands) joined WorldVeg in November 2017 to manage the Center’s genebank operations. From 2006 – 2013 he worked on ex situ and in situ conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources of crops and tree species in South America with Bioversity International, Colombia. From 2013 – 2017 he worked in Central America with Bioversity International, Costa Rica on conservation of plant genetic resources and in participatory research with farmers and forest communities for climate change adaptation, varietal selection, and seed testing. Maarten supported national institutions from Bolivia and Peru in expanding their national Capsicum pepper collections, and in the screening and regeneration to strengthen these important and diverse collections. He has experience with the International Treaty and the Nagoya protocol. Maarten has a background in GIS and in diversity analysis to screen plant genetic resources.
Dr. Ravishankar Manickam has been appointed as Scientist – Vegetable Grafting at WorldVeg headquarters beginning 1 November 2017. Ravi previously worked as a Research Site Coordinator at the WorldVeg South Asia office for eight years, focusing on grafting training and participatory technology development. Ravi also served as an Assistant Professor at Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India from 2006-2008. He holds a PhD in Nematology from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute.
Roselyne Houeto has joined WorldVeg West and Central Africa – Coastal and Humid Regions in Benin as an Administrative Assistant. She holds a Master’s Degree in English Language from the National University of Abomey-Calavi. Roselyne previously worked as a Secretary for AfricaRice Benin-Cotonou Station on the Policy, Innovation Systems, and Impact Assessment program (2012-2016), and as an Administrative Assistant at the Benin Ministry of Health (2006-2001).
Komla Azoma is the new Training and Outreach Assistant at WorldVeg West and Central Africa – Coastal and Humid Regions in Benin.
Two interns are working the Crop Protection Lab of WorldVeg South Asia in Hyderabad, India under the supervision of Legume Breeder Ram Nair and Plant Pathologist Abhay Pandey: Alyssa Swehla, from Iowa State University, USA, is conducting an experiment on the effect of Trichoderma harzianum (bioagent) isolates on dry root rot pathogen of mungbean (Vigna radiata). Chloé Elmerich, an intern from ENSAT in France. is screening urdbean (Vigna mungo) lines for resistance to the pathogen causing dry root rot.
Derek Barchenger joined WorldVeg as a Postdoctoral Scientist – Breeding on 1 August 2017. Derek recently completed and received his PhD degree in plant and environmental sciences from New Mexico State University, USA, where he focused on chili pepper genetics and breeding. During his PhD training, Derek received a 2016 Borlaug Fellowship and spent his six-month term at WorldVeg headquarters under the mentorship of Pepper Breeder Sanjeet Kumar. While at WorldVeg, Derek implemented a Phytophthora capsici race characterization protocol to support international anticipatory breeding against this devastating pathogen. Welcome back, Derek!