BHEARD program provides training for those who will help feed future generations worldwide
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EmailBHEARD links scientific and higher education communities in Feed the Future countries and the United States.
Susan Otieno, a second-year doctoral candidate at MSU, and a dozen of her colleagues traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, last October for the World Food Prize, an international gathering that recognizes the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.
As she listened to the different discussions at the event, Otieno – a Kenyan studying plant breeding genetics and biotechnology at Michigan State University – became more convinced of the need to embrace and integrate women into leadership positions in order to spur innovation and agricultural transformation in Africa.
“We have to address several key issues facing agricultural productivity,” said Otieno, who is working with David Douches, director of the MSU Potato Breeding and Genetics Program, to develop a diploid potato breeding program in Kenya. “When women are involved in leadership positions they will have access to loans and land, and thus have more power to determine their fate and drive agricultural production to greater heights. That is what I intend to do when I return to my home country.”
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