Abstract: The presentation will cover a brief introduction to the Amaala Giga project. It will then focus on the agronomic, and ecological research requirements of the project in order to illicit where KAUST could be of assistance to Amaala
Bio: “I am a trained Agricultural Economist and Director of Horticulture for the Amaala project. I have spent a number of years in Africa focused on conservation management and the economics of conservation and also focussed on food security across a number of African state ranging from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya in the East to Nigeria, Benin, Ghana and Cote d Ivore in the west and Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa in the South. I run a non-profit organisation focussed on wild honey bee conservation in Africa where we convert bush-meat poachers to become beekeepers and game wardens with specific focus on community development programmes using Asset based Community Development (approaches). I also do a lot of work in landscape adaptation and climate change mitigation practices targeted at afforestation and natural vegetative management as mitigants of climate change resilience. I put conservation and biodiversity first in all my strategies and am hoping to work with Kaust in terms of developing a research centre at Amaala to train and nurture young local talent into careers in the life sciences. (specifically focussed on phytonutrients, new edible range development, CAM and the art of economically viable conservation management”
