Professor Anthony Youdeowei, NRI's Visiting Professor of Capacity Strengthening in Agricultural Research for Development, has been awarded 2015's International Plant Protection Award of Distinction by the International Association for the Plant Protection Sciences (IAPPS), for major contributions to the promotion of global plant protection. IAPPS, formally established in the late 1990s, aims to promote the application of an integrated approach to research and the application of the plant protection sciences.
This award was presented at a ceremony on 24th August 2015, during the opening ceremony of the XVIII International Plant Protection Congress, held in Berlin, Germany from 24–27 August 2015. Prof Youdeowei's friends and colleagues at NRI congratulate him on this important achievement.
Prof Youdeowei's major interests are in tropical plant protection, and agricultural research and development issues in Africa. He is the author of several books on agricultural education, integrated pest management and plant protection extension and training. He has published over 120 research papers in plant protection and agricultural development.
One of Prof Youdeowei's major collaborations with NRI, whilst employed by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), was on the Strengthening Capacities for Agricultural Research and Development in Africa (SCARDA) project, funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The project worked with national agricultural research institutes and their partners in ten countries in association with sub-regional research organisations and regional educational networks. SCARDA developed innovative approaches for identifying and addressing the capacity needs of agricultural research and education organisations and for linking postgraduate training to organisational development. In its later phase it designed and tested new approaches for enhancing the capacities of different types of organisations working together in agricultural innovation platforms.
In addition to his role at NRI, Prof Youdeowei is on the Board of Directors of Pesticide Action Network UK, and he has worked closely with FARA. He advises African governments, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Bank, development agencies including Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) on integrated production and pest management policies, planning, implementation, Farmer Field Schools, pesticides management as well as training in scientific communication and the management of agricultural journals.
Prof Youdeowei is a Founding Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) in Nairobi, Kenya, a Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in Trieste, Italy, and a Director of the West African Book Publishing Limited in Lagos, Nigeria.
Links: NRI's Capacity Strengthening for Agricultural Development and Food Security Programme