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WACCI Advisory Board

WACCI is guided by an Advisory Board. The Board was inaugurated by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana to advise on the overall strategy of the Centre. Below are short profiles of the members of the Advisory Board.

 

  • Eugene Terry

    Senior Technical Advisor TransFarm Africa. Washington DC

    Dr. Eugene Terry is the Chairman of the Advisory Board. Eugene is the Founding Director (2002-2004) of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF). Prior to that. he worked with the World Bank first as an Advisor (Agricultural Research and Extension Group-ESDAR). and then later as Crops Advisor. in the Rural Development Department. Dr Terry was the first Director General of the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA). Bouake. Cote dIvoire. (now The Africa Rice Centre) a position he held for nine (9) years. In addition to his thirty-seven years of professional experience in teaching. research. technology development and institutional leadership. Eugene has served as member and Chair of various boards of trustees. steering committees and advisory groups. He has received awards for his work from Canada. Ivoy Coast and the United States. He brings to the Board enormous leadership and wealth of experience spanning the length and breadth of the agricultural value chain. Eugene is Honorary Professor. Department of Biochemistry. Microbiology. Genetics and Plant Pathology. Faculty of Science and Agriculture. University of Kwa ZuluNatal. Pietermaritzburg. South Africa. He holds a PhD in plant pathology from the University of Illinois. USA. an MSc. in plant pathology and a BSc. in agriculture from McGill University. Canada.

  • Eric Y. Danquah

    Director. West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement. University of Ghana

    Eric Yirenkyi Danquah is a Professor of Genetics and presently the Director of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI). University of Ghana.

    Eric is the immediate past Dean of International Programmes. University of Ghana and is a Fellow of the Cambridge Commonwealth and Cambridge Philosophical Societies. Some of his academic scholarships and awards are UK Commonwealth Academic Fellowship. UK Commonwealth Scholarship. UK Vice-Chancellors Overseas Research Scholarship and Distinguished Alumnus. Legon Hall. University of Ghana. He has a number of refereed scientific publications. manuscripts. books. consultancy/technical reports and conference proceedings to his credit. He has consulted for many international organizations and was a member of the External Panel Management Review Team of ICRISAT. 2003-2008.

    Eric holds an M.Phil in Plant breeding (1987) and a Ph.D in Genetics (1993) from the University of Cambridge. UK. His main research areas are genetic diversity in crop plants and associated pests. biotechnologies in crop improvement. and farmers knowledge in plant breeding. He was a Visiting Scientist at the Plant Breeding International. Cambridge. UK (1993-1994) and the Institute of Arable Crops Research. University of Bristol. UK (2000-2001).

  • Ronnie Coffman

    Director. International Programmes. College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Cornell University. Ithaca. NY. USA

    Ronnie Coffman serves as International Professor of Plant Breeding and Director of International Programs of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. Ithaca. NY. USA. He also serves as Principal Investigator of the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project (ABSPII) and the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project. Previous positions include Associate Dean for Research and Director. Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station; Chair of the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics. and Plant Breeder at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

    Ronnies work has been important to the development of improved rice varieties grown on several million hectares throughout the world. He has collaborated extensively with institutions in the developing world and has served as a board member for several international institutes. including the West Africa Rice Development Association (WARDA). Currently. he serves on the Board of Trustees of the American University of Beirut. the International Service for the Acquisition of Agribiotech Applications (ISAAA). and the Council of Advisors of the World Food Prize. His Ph.D. is from Cornell University and undergraduate work was done at the University of Kentucky. his home state.

    Ronnie served as a member of the international assessment team that selected the University of Ghana Legon as the host institution for WACCI.

  • Mark D. Laing

    Director. African Centre for Crop Improvement. KwaZulu Natal University

    Mark D. Laing is a professor and Chair of Plant Pathology and presently the Director of the African Centre for Crop Improvement (ACCI). University of KwaZulu Natal. South Africa. after which WACCI was modelled. Mark is an accomplished agriculturalist. He has successfully served as the Director of the ACCI since its inception in 2003. Mark holds a PhD (Epidemiology) and a BSc (Plant Pathology) from the University of KwaZulu Natal.

  • Rufaro Madakadze

    Education and Training Officer. AGRA

    Dr Rufaro Madakadze is a program officer for education and training in the Program for Africas Seed System of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). The aim of the Education for African Crop Improvement (EACI) initiative is to alleviate the human capital capacity constraint to increasing farmer productivity and profitability in Africa imposed by the very limited number of plant breeders needed to develop and popularize new. higher-yielding. locally adapted crop varieties.

    Rufaro is a horticultural scientist trained in Michigan State University (USA) and the University of Guelph. Ontario (Canada). She has taught crop sciences at the University of Zululand. South Africa and the University of Zimbabwe for 18 years and has mentored over 10 post graduate students. She was the head of the Department of Crop Science at the University of Zimbabwe for 3 years from 2002 to 2004. She has served as an external examiner to several universities and post graduate student theses in east and southern Africa including Sokoine University of Agriculture (Tanzania) and Africa University (Zimbabwe). University of Nairobi (Kenya) and University of KwaZulu Natal (South Africa).

    She has sat on the Agriculture Panel of the National Research Foundation (an institution that supports most of the research in South Africa) evaluating proposals for funding. She is also a member of the CTA Advisory Committee on Science and Technology for Afican. Carribean and Pacific (ACP) countries and is currently on the planning committee of the African Crop Science Society. Dr Madakadze has worked on various projects in Horticultural Sciences that included under and post graduate students. commercial and smallholder farmers supported by DFID. EU. UNU/INRA and the Rockefeller Forum Foundation.

  • Daniel Asiedu

    Provost. College Of Basic and Applied Sciences. University of Ghana

     

     

     

     

     

  • Abdou Tenkouano

    Director CORAF/WECARD