Promotions, Moves and Recognition

Stella Ennin, 2009 AWARD Fellow

AWARD Fellow Dr. Stella Ennin recently received a 2012 Ghana Women of Excellence Award from the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs for her contributions to scientific research and agricultural development. Ennin is the first female deputy director of the Crops Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Ghana. She is also the first female in the entire organization, which is made up of 13 institutes, to reach the highest grade of chief research scientist.

Ennin has contributed to the development of 14 crop production technologies. She has also organized some 70 field days for 200 agricultural extension officers and 2,000 farmers, both men and women, who were trained on the new technologies, resulting in 10 to 50 percent yield increases and the reduction of drudgery in crop production. These new technologies include choice of variety; chemical and organic fertilizer application to normal and quality protein maize; and optimum cowpea and soybean plant population density in crop rotations and intercrops with maize and cassava. She also developed mechanized ridging for planting and minimum staking to reduce drudgery and deforestation associated with yam production and climate change in Ghana’s coastal, forest, and forest-savannah transition zones. See full story

Charlotte Oduro-Yeboah, 2010 AWARD Fellow

Charlotte Oduro-Yeboah was recently promoted to the position of Senior Research Scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Food Research Institute in Ghana. Oduro-Yeboah’s goal is to teach smallholder farmers how to process cassava and plantain into dry flour forms to extend their shelf life. She is also involved in a community development project in the northern part of Ghana to train farmers in crop productivity. She was trained by the Millennium Challenge Accounts to help these farmers develop business plans to get funding. “The farmers are being taught to change their mindset and see farming as a business rather than a way of life,” she says.

Oduro-Yeboah was previously the Head of the Roots and Tuber Product Development Unit at CSIR.

Cecilia Maliwichi-Nyirenda, 2010 AWARD Fellow

Cecilia Maliwichi-Nyirenda recently joined the University of Malawi's College of Medicine as a Scientific Operations Manager. In her new role she is responsible for strengthening research culture amongst junior faculty, undergraduates and postgraduate students at the College of Medicine, and generating income for the college through provision of consultancy and research training services. She is also responsible for collating, synthesizing, packaging, and disseminating research results for the use of health policy makers and programme managers.

Previously, Maliwichi-Nyirenda was a training coordinator at the Leadership for Environment and Development Southern and Eastern Africa Chancellor College at the University of Malawi. Her research interests include compiling, preserving, managing and promoting indigenous knowledge to ensure its availability to researchers, the general public and future generations.

Professor Ogugua Charles Aworh, AWARD Mentor

AWARD Mentor Ogugua Charles Aworh, a professor at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria was elected as a fellow to the International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST), a country-membership organization that is the global voice of food science and technology. The current Academy members identified Aworh as having contributed significantly towards advancements in food science and technology.

Subuola Fasoyiro, 2010 AWARD Fellow, Nigeria

Subuola Fasoyiro was appointed as the Head of the Product Development Program at the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training in Ibadan, Nigeria. Fasoyiro holds a PhD in Food Technology from the University of Ibadan. “I hope to utilize all the skills that I have learned during my AWARD Fellowship, especially in the leadership and management course, to contribute and bring positive changes that will take my institution to a higher level,” she says of her promotion.

Fasoyiro also recently attended the Society for General Microbiology conference where she presented a paper titled “Microbes in street- vended soy cheese in Oyo State, Nigeria” and learned about current trends in food research, specifically in terms of new techniques and equipment used in the field.