Kenyan gets top global research award
A scientist at Kemri conducts his investigation in a laboratory on July 26, 2015. A scientist from Kenya has won the Norman Borlaug Award. PHOTO | TOM OTIENO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Rockefeller Foundation provides the endowment for the award, which includes $10,000 for the winner.
A Kenyan scientist who formulated a livestock insurance scheme is the winner of Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application.
Dr Andrew Mude’s programme employs satellite data to protect pastoralists in the Horn of Africa against the effects of drought.
The award was presented to Dr Mude by Rockefeller Foundation President Judith Rodin at a ceremony that attracted hundreds of agriculture experts attending the World Food Prize symposium in Iowa, US.
The award is named after a crop scientist and Nobel Prize winner.
Rockefeller Foundation provides the endowment for the award, which includes $10,000 for the winner.
“Borlaug’s footprint and legacy are immense and it is humbling to be associated with him,” Dr Mude said.
At a separate event in Des Moines, Dr Mude and colleagues from California, Davis and Cornell universities received the award for Scientific Excellence from the Board for International Food and Agriculture Development.
“More than a decade of research into the conditions that contribute to poverty among pastoralists produced solutions that Andrew and the rest of the team implemented,” Michael Carter, a professor of agricultural and resource economics, said.
