Research Directors

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Dr. Damas Philip


Chairperson

Dr. Damas Philip is the Dean at the School of Agricultural Economics and Business Studies (SAEBS) at the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA). The School has close to 1000 students, a quarter of which are postgraduate students pursuing MSc, MBA (Agribusiness and PhD studies. Bachelor of Business Management (BBM) and PhD (Agribusiness). Prior to joining the Sokoine University of Agriculture, Dr. Philip worked as a Scientific Officer at the Tanzanian Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH). Dr. Philip holds a Bachelor of Science in General Agriculture and a Master of Science in Agricultural Economics from the Sokoine University of Agriculture. He also holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Bonn University. Dr. Philip teaches statistics, farm management and macroeconomics at undergraduate and graduate levels, and supervises undergraduate and postgraduate students’ research projects in a wide range of topics relevant for rural development. Dr. Philip has done research and published various articles in natural resource economics and farm management.
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Dr. Gabriel Elepu


Vice Chairperson

Dr. Gabriel Elepu holds a PhD in Agricultural and Consumer Economics with specialization in Food and Agribusiness Management from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. Currently, he works as a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Agribusiness and Natural Resource Economics, Makerere University, Uganda. He has over ten (10) years experience as a researcher in agro-supply chains, producer and consumer behaviours, supermarkets, contract farming and warehouse receipt system. He has also worked as a consultant for various governmental and non governmental organizations on short term assignments. As far as governmental organizations are concerned, he has served as the subject matter specialist for grains value chains (Rice, Maize, and Beans) during the inception and double revisions of the Development Strategy and Investment Plan of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries. He has also worked for the National Agricultural and Advisory Services (NAADS) in studying markets and value chains of citrus, mangoes, pineapples, apples, groundnuts, fish, dairy, cassava, and poultry. Among non governmental organizations he has worked for include DANIDA, USAID, ACDI/VOCA, ACF, and FAO. For all these organizations, he has analyzed selected agro-value chains, such as dairy, rice, maize, beans, sorghum, irish potato, groundnuts, sesame, and sunflower to inform their specific livelihood programme interventions at the national level. He has been involved in evaluation of DANIDA’s Livestock Systems Research Programme and ADE/AfDB on fisheries value chain development interventions in Uganda. Beyond national borders, he has also worked with COMESA on maize value chain; and NBI on selected agro-value chains (maize, fruits and vegetables) in selected corridors in Nile Basin countries.
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Prof. Peter Quartey


Finance Chairperson

Prof. Peter Quartey holds a PhD in Development Economics from the University of Manchester (UK), MSc in Quantitative Development Economics (University of Warwick, UK), MPhil. Economics (Ghana), and BA Economics (Ghana). He is a Professor in Development Economics and the immediate past Head, Department of Economics and Director (Economic Management Programme), University of Ghana.

He served as the Deputy Director, Centre for Migration Studies (University of Ghana). Prof. Peter Quartey served as the Head, Economics Division, Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, University of Ghana and is currently the Director, Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana.

Prof. Peter Quartey was the Management Board Chairman, University of Ghana Cooperative Credit Union (2012-2015) and Vice Management Board Chairman (2009-2012). He is currently the Vice National Advisory Board Chairman, the Hunger Project (Ghana) and a Board Member, Agricultural Development Bank Ltd and the Executive Chairman of Startrite Montessori School Ltd.

He has published extensively and his research interests are: Financial and Monetary Sector, Private Sector Development including SMEs, Development Finance, Migration and Remittances and Poverty Analysis. He has consulted for both local and international institutions including the World Bank, African Development Bank, OECD, USAID, Overseas Development Institute, DFID and many others. He is a member of the African Economic Research Consortium and the Global Development Network.

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Dr. Anthony Chapoto


Chairperson of Technical Committee

Dr. Chapoto joined the Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI) in July 2014 as the Research Director, coming from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) where he was a Research Fellow. As a Research Fellow, he worked under the Development Strategy and Governance Division based in Accra, Ghana with IFPRI’s Ghana Strategy Support Program. Prior to IFPRI, Dr. Chapoto was an Assistant Professor for five years and an Associate Professor for one year in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University. During that time, he was stationed in Zambia under the Food Security Research Project in Lusaka as the USAID Chief of Party and Research Coordinator. His research interests focus on agricultural development issues in Africa, including agricultural technology and productivity, smallholder farm commercialization, home-grown medium and large-scale farmers, and food markets and policy. Dr. Chapoto has a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University and a Masters in Agricultural Economics from the University of Zimbabwe
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Prof. Marie Ndambo Nyange


Board Member

Prof. Nyange has been a Professor in the Faculty of Economics and Management, Department of Economics and the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Kinshasa (UNIKIN) – Congo DRC, since 2014. Prior to this appointment, Prof. Nyange was the assistant and Head of Studies at the Faculty of Economics and Management, Department of Economics at UNIKIN from 1999 to 2013. Prof, Nyanje has vast experience in the fields of local economic development, knowledge management formulation, management and evaluation of development projects, and forest governance.

Her competence in these areas, have seen her serve as an expert on Technical Unit of the National Assembly, i.e as an expert at the Technical Secretariat for National Consultations, and as the President of the African Women Entrepreneurs African Model Forest Network from 2013 to date.

Prof. Nyanje is affiliated to a number of professional insitutions incuding but not limited to; the Association de Scientifiques du Congo (ASC), Association de Professeurs de l’Université de Kinshasa (APUKIN), and Réseau Africian des Forêts Modèles (RAFM).

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Dr. Thabbie Chilongo


Board Member

Dr. Thabbie Chilongo is the current Acting Director of the Centre for Agricultural Research and Development (CARD) based at Bunda Campus of the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) in Malawi. His main responsibility as Director of CARD is to provide leadership in coordination of the administrative and technical issues of the Centre’s three units: Agricultural Policy Research Unit (APRU), Agricultural Policy Analysis Training Unit (APATU) and the Training and Consultancy Coordinating Unit (TCCU). Dr. Chilongo is also a seasoned researcher and academician with over 12 years experience. He specializes in Agricultural, Development and Resource Economics. His research interests include: rural livelihoods, resource management, poverty and socioeconomic developmental issues. As an academician, Dr. Chilongo has supervised and taught at all levels (BSc., MSc. and PhD). Some of the courses he teaches include: Research Methods for Social Sciences, Food and Agricultural Policy Analysis, Agricultural Marketing and Econometrics. Analytically, Dr. Chilongo has a bias in quantitative econometric analysis, although he frequently applies a mixed methods approach of both quantitative and qualitative analyses.
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Dr. Lourenço Manuel


Board Member

Dr. Lourenço Manuel is currently the Director of the Research Center for Agricultural Policy and Programs (CEPPAG) and Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Development at Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) in Mozambique. He holds a PhD in Statistics and Design of Agri-system Experiments from Federal University of Lavras, Brazil. Dr. Manuel has more than 10 years of experience lecturing students in master and undergraduate classes addressing design of experiments, applied statistics, econometrics and data analysis at Faculty of Agronomy and Forestry Engineering of UEM. He has long experience in quantitative method analysis and implementing household surveys including, sampling, questionnaire development, supervision in data collection process, enumerators training, data base creation, cleaning and management, statistical analysis and quantitative report writing. He has worked as consultant for some organization such as FAO and World Vision.
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Salomo Mbai


Board Member

Salomo Mbai heads the Agricultural Trade Policy Institute (ATPI) at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST).

Prof. Edward Mutandwa


Board Member

Edward Mutandwa is an Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension at the University of Zimbabwe. He holds a PhD degree in Forest Economics and Policy from Mississippi State University, USA (2015). He is also a holder of masters and bachelor’s degrees in agricultural economics from the University of Zimbabwe. He has over 20 years’ experience in the academic and development working spanning countries that include Zimbabwe, Rwanda and the United States. His research interests are in the areas of agricultural and environmental economics including ecosystem services valuation, urban forestry, food security-poverty analysis, impacts of climate change on rural livelihoods, urban food systems, and the role of indigenous knowledge systems in the rural society, and greening initiatives in developing countries. Prof. Mutandwa has published more than 40 journal articles in internationally referred journals that include Forest Policy and Economics (Elsevier), Small-scale Forestry (Springer) and the International Journal of Social Economics (Emerald Publishing). Currently, he is working on projects related to the integration of ICTs in various facets of agriculture in Zimbabwe.
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Mr. Chance Kabaghe


Board Member

Chance Kabaghe has been the Executive Director of Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI), since 2012 when it transitioned from the Food Security Research Project (FSRP). He has a BSc and MSc Degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Zambia and London University (WYE College) respectively with more than 25 years’ experience in agricultural policy and agribusiness management and analysis. He is one of Zambia’s leading agribusiness practitioners and professionals.

His career has bridged multiple worlds – in agri-business, government, public policy and academia – all at very high levels and with impressively broad impact in key areas affecting agricultural development. In the business world, he played a key role in the promotion of hybrid maize seeds while serving as Marketing Director cum Assistant Chief Executive Officer of Zambia Seed Company Limited (ZAMSEED) during the period 1985 to 1995. He continues active involvement in many of Zambia’s major agri-businesses, serving as Director and Chairman on multiple agribusiness corporate boards including Seedco which is a leading seed company in Zambia and the Sub-Saharan African Region.

In government, he served as Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Livestock where he was in charge of agricultural policy, planning and marketing. He was the first Executive Director of Zambia’s Food Reserve Agency, where he was instrumental in establishing Zambia’s market-friendly system of strategic food reserves. Drawing from his early career in the academic world as a university lecturer at the University of Zambia School of Agricultural Sciences, Mr Kabaghe has emerged as a key leader in national and regional agricultural policy debates.

As Chief Executive Officer of IAPRI, he is responsible to the Board Directors for the direction and management of the Institute’s research, capacity building, stakeholder consultation, coordination and general administration and financial management. At the regional level, he is the Chairman of the Regional Network of Agricultural Policy Institutes (ReNAPRI) in Eastern and Southern Africa which is comprised of nine (9) countries.

Mr Kabaghe has in the past been involved in the development of many agricultural policies in Zambia such as the Agricultural Marketing Bill, Food Reserve Act, Agricultural Credits Act, and the Cotton Act etc. He also sits on the COMESA Business Council (CBC) where he chairs the Agricultural Committee.

Previously he was appointed to lead the Michigan State University run FSRP from 2009 until it was transformed in 2012 into IAPRI in order to enhance the interface between empirical policy analysis and transmission of these findings to key stakeholders especially policy makers, policy implementers and the private sector.

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Prof. Thomas Jayne


Board Member

Prof. Jayne’s career has been devoted to working with African colleagues to promote effective policy responses to poverty in Africa. Jayne is Professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University. He is also Adjunct Professor at the Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute in Lusaka, Zambia, and is a Distinguished Fellow of the African Association of Agricultural Economists.

He has mentored dozens of young Africa professionals and played a major role in building MSU’s partnerships with African research institutes, serving as co-director of several grants from the Gates Foundation focusing on building sustainable research capacity in Africa.

He has over 25 years of experience conducting research on agricultural productivity and markets. Jayne sits on the editorial boards of two professional journals, received a top paper award in 2004 by the International Association of Agricultural Economists, co-authored a paper awarded the T.W. Schultz Award at the 2009 International Association of Agricultural Economists Triennial Meetings, received the 2009 Outstanding Article Award in Agricultural Economics, and co-authored a paper awarded First Prize at the 2010 tri-annual meetings of the African Association of Agricultural Economists.

Jayne also received a Research Excellence Award in 2011 from MSU’s Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics Department. He currently serves on the advisory boards of several initiatives dedicated to building institutional capacity in sub-Saharan Africa, including the Global Development Network’s Global Research Capacity Building Program, and the Regional Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes in Eastern and Southern Africa

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Prof. Ferdinand Meyer


Board Member

Prof. Meyer is currently the Director of the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) in South Africa. BFAP specializes in the field of commodity and supply chain modelling, scenario planning, risk analysis, consumer economics and food price inflation.Apart from advising policy makers, agricultural producers and the agri-business sector within South Africa, BFAP also publishes an Annual Agricultural Outlook, comprising of a 10-year outlook for 44 agricultural commodities. Prior to this position he served as a Commodity Market Analyst responsible for the development and maintenance of a multi-market simulation model for the South African field crops, meat and dairy industry. This also included various models measuring price transmission and market integration as well as supply chain models.

Prof. Meyer has extensive experience lecturing students in undergraduate classes addressing agricultural marketing, econometric modelling and commodity price analysis. As a senior lecturer, he supervised both Masters and PhD students, of which 9 have graduated over the past 4 years. With a number of articles published in international journals and local journals, he is proud to note that Four Best Papers Awards have been received at international and national conferences under his supervision

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Prof. Gideon Obare


Board Member

Prof. Gideon Obare is the Executive Director of the Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development based at Egerton University. He has been a lecturer for the last twenty-nine years and is a Professor of Agricultural Economics at Egerton University. He has taught, conducted and managed research in the field of Agricultural Economics. Prof. Obare has been an administrator as a Chairman of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Management of Egerton University. In the intervening period as a lecturer, he was a visiting scientist at the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid and Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and also visiting Professor at the University of Hohenheim, Germany. Prof. Obare’s academic Background in Agricultural Economics includes degrees from the University of Nairobi, Kiel, and Egerton Universities. He also has a Post Graduate Diploma in Extension, Administration and Management from the University of Kassel, Germany.
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Prof. Isaac Kanyama


Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES), Universite de Kinshasha, DRC

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Dr. Lilian Kirimi


Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development, Kenya

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Prof. Charles Jumbe


Lilongwe University of Agriculture & Natural Resources (LUANAR), Malawi

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Ms. Orcídia Tina Chiziane Vilanculos


Research Center for Agriculture Policy and Agri-systems (CEPPAG), Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique

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Ms. Lulama Traub


Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP), University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

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Dr. Zena Mpenda


School of Agriculture Economics and Business Studies (SAEBS), Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Tanzania

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Prof. Jackline Bonabana


Makerere University

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Dr. Antony Chapoto


Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI), Zambia

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Dr. Emmanuel Mwakiwa


Department of Agricultural Economics & Extension, University of Zimbabwe

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Dr. Andrew Agyei-Holmes


Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research(ISSER), University of Ghana

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Dr. Thinah Moyo


Agricultural Trade Policy Institute (ATPI), Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST)

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