Ben holds Bachelor of Science in General Agriculture and Diploma
in Education from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana and worked on “The
assessment of the effectiveness of rice bran as feed for young cockerels”.
He worked for one year with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture
and four years with Private Companies, all in the “Northern Deprived” Regions
of Ghana as an extension agent. His concern for economic,
social
and human
resource development of Ghana initiated an interest in Participatory Technology
Development and Extension. He expects to work with resource-poor farmers and
apply better approaches in extension.
Claire has been working for the past four years in Ecuador, first in the organic agriculture sector in product and market development. For the past three years she worked for a large cut flower cooperative in sales, marketing and training. Prior to moving to Ecuador, Claire was with the Chicago Department of the Environment for two years working with students and communities to transform vacant lots into gardens and improve food security in low income neighborhoods. Other experience includes working on a biodynamic Community Supported Agriculture(CSA) farm in Wisconsin, and volunteering with NGOs on rural development projects in Paraguay, Bolivia and Mexico. “ I am excited about the IARD program as a way of exploring the ways agriculture intersects with issues of development, globalization and poverty.” Claire holds a B.A. in the Science in Society Program from Wesleyan University.
Kimani grew up in rural central Kenya and holds a degree from University of Nairobi in Bachelor of Science Agricultural Engineering in 1987. He joined the National Machinery-Testing Unit, Nakuru, for three years as a design and testing engineer.In 1990, he moved to a regional rural development center in Western Kenya as the officer in charge for three years, later moved to Central Kenya under the same capacity. He has experience in design and development of appropriate rural technologies among which are: design of new tractor testing procedures, design of a vegetable oil press, design of solar fruits &vegetable dryers, design of biogas systems and the design of a hand pushed planter. He also participated actively in the formulation of the Kenya National Agricultural Mechanization policy.
In 1991, he attended a tractor-testing course in Germanyand later obtained a postgraduate diploma in Agricultural Systems Engineering from the University of Zimbabwe in 1993.He is a member of the Institute of Engineers of Kenya and Kenya Society of Agricultural Engineers. His articles have been published in the Kenya Engineer and in the Journal of Agricultural Engineers.
Kimani’s hobbies include website design, watching soccer (on TV), writing
and hanging out with his friends. Tusker is his favorite beer, in his words, “The
best beer I have ever tasted.” Favorite saying: “If you think you
can, you can. If you think you can’t, well, you are right”
Kioko earned a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture at University of
Nairobi Kenya. He then worked with
the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Kenya
for fives years in agricultural extension and training. In 1999, he joined
an international development agency, Intermediate Technology development
group (ITDG) as an Agricultural project Officer and
later as a project coordinator. He designed and implemented various
community based projects in natural resource management, animal health care,
savings and credit, water
and seed security. Prior to joining, Cornell he worked with a development
agency, FARM Africa as a monitoring and evaluation program officer for an agricultural
technology transfer project covering East Africa. “ My interest in joining
Cornell is to gain a theoretical understanding and skills in the social dynamics
involved in community and rural development. The multidisciplinary nature of
the MPS course will provide me with the right training required for addressing
the multiplicity of issues involved in community
and rural development.”
Lydiah holds a Bachelor's degree in Horticulture from Egerton
University Kenya. She then worked with Africa Biodiversity Institute as a research
assistant and later she joined Women's Right Awareness Program under the same
capacity. Prior to joining Cornell, in April
2001 to October 2002,
she worked with Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS)
at the Univeristyof California, Santa Cruz as an assistant Community Supported
Agriculture
(CSA) farm manager
for
25 hectares
of land under crop production and orchard. She was also as
an instructor in agroecology to thirty six apprentices.
Other experience include working with National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS)
East Africa Branch and Presidential Award Scheme (PAS) in Kenya as an instructor
and assessor respectively in wilderness skills and environmental sciences.
"my interest in IARD is the multidisciplinary component that would address
agriculture
and
rural
development
particularly
to women
who are the backbone of agricultural development in most developing countries."
Rishiraj Das grew up in Bombay, and earned a Bachelors degree in Forest Ecology
and Natural Resources Management from University of California, Berkeley in
1999.
After that he began working on environmental conservation, particularly of
rivers and watershed areas with International Rivers Network and later the
Trust
for
Public Land in California. In 2000, he returned to India to work with Peoples’ Science
Institute (PSI), a non-profit public interest research and advocacy group based
in Dehra Doon. As a researcher with PSI, he worked on post-earthquake rehabilitation
and natural disaster management in western and northern India, and water and
natural resource management in northern, western and eastern India. He particularly
focused on community managed systems and traditional knowledge, and programs
to integrate scientific research with rural communities’ initiatives
to undertake independent self-reliant development. In 2003, he joined the
MPS program at Cornell University with the intention of studying forest ecology
and management in India.
Satokima has been concerned about positive changes in the quality of life of the rural marginalized farmers for the last few years. After undergraduate study in law in Japan, he joined Japanese NGO (Asian Rural Institute) which carries out rural leaders’ training course for participants from Asian and African countries. In 1999, he joined the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers’ program (JOCV) Japanese version peace corps to pracyice ARI.
He has worked in Guatemala as a rural development extension worker for two years with local agricultural cooperative in establishing an organic fertilizer factory and introducing cash crops to enterpreneur farmers. The impact of free trades pressures and inadequate agricultural policy affect the farmers, and he hopes to promote effective governmental action by identifying appropriate and inappropriate policies to improve the quality of the farmers lives.
Sylvie earned a Bachelors degree in Anthropology and Biology at McGill University in Montréal. She then joined the Peace Corps and worked as a Natural Resource Management advisor among the Konkomba of northern Togo. She collaborated with farmers on implementing various agroforestry techniques, organized and facilitated trainings on grafting, beekeeping, reforestation, soy transformation and improved cookstove construction. She taught high-school environmental education classes and collaborated with local communities to write several grant proposals. In order to build on her experiences and reflect on questions of development, she went on to do a Master’s in Human Geography in Paris. Her thesis dealt with the effects of recent changes in the agricultural economy on Konkomba society and culture. She is interested in participatory approaches for sustainable development and impact assessment. She believes the IARD program will bring her practical knowledge useful for tackling the worldwide problems of agriculture and development.
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