West Africa Consultant

Mr. Augustine Uzo Mokwunye. He holds a Ph.D. in Soil Chemistry in 1972 from University of Illinois (USA), a Master of Science degree in Soil Biochemistry from Ohio State University (USA) in 1968 and a Bachelor of Science degree in Agronomy from Ohio State University (USA) in 1966. He was Director (D2 level) of United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) in Accra, Ghana from 1996 to 2004. He is now a retired UN staff member. Prior to his tenure at UNU-INRA, he was Director responsible for developing projects for Eastern and Southern Africa in the Office of the President of International Fertilizer development Center (IFDC) in 1996 and Director of IFDC – Africa, Lome (Togo) from 1990 to 1996. During his long career as agronomist and soil scientist, he has worked, among others, for the promotion of sustainable agricultural development through research and development that take into account the strong interface between the soil, the plant/crops, the cropping systems and the management practices. His focus was on removing factors (including soil fertility shortcomings) that constrain food production in the different agro-ecological zones of tropical Africa. He has
vigorously pursued research on farmers’ fields, involving active farmerparticipation in the generation and testing of technologies, and has promoted the adoption of these technologies. He has also assisted African governments to evolve policies that promote transparent, open and competitive input and output markets that support sustainable agriculture production systems. Overall, Professor Mokwunye’s career is marked with agronomic research and development. Most of his work has been done in West Africa and this in many French and English speaking countries. He can read and hold a conversation in French.