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Jacinta Adoma Opoku

Jacinta obtained her BSc. in Agriculture and her MPhil in Agronomy (Plant Breeding) all from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). Her research was sponsored by the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). She characterized tomato germplasm using their morphological features and also Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers during her MPhil. She had her National Service at Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Toase in the Atwima Nwabiagya District, Kumasi –Ashanti, from September 2011 to August 2012.  She worked with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture from December 2012 to March 2017. In April 2017, she joined the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research- Crops Research Institute of Ghana (CSIR-CRI) as Principal Technologist and has since been involved in breeding and agronomy of leafy vegetables (especially the indigenous ones like amaranth, corchorus, hibiscus, etc) and sugarcane at the Horticulture Division, CSIR-CRI.

Currently, she has been sponsored by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture to pursue a PhD. in Plant breeding at West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), University of Ghana. Her research interest is in molecular and quantitative breeding of vegetables, the most neglected food crops in her country. Her PhD research will be in Genetic Variability and Drought Tolerance in Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus  L Moench). She aims to acquire the requisite knowledge to help curb the food and nutrition insecurity issues in sub-Saharan Africa.

Jacinta aspires to become a renowned female plant breeder to help improve on the livelihood of farmers by making improved seeds/planting materials available to them. She also wishes to impart knowledge that she acquires to future plant breeders through consultations, advocacy and lecturing.

She is a member of the Ghana Institute of Horticulturist (GhIH).