Alumna Gerardine Mukeshemana to provide keynote speech at the World Food Conf.
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EmailDr. Geradine Mukeshemana, doctoral graduate of the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, who studied under Dr. James Kelly, will give a Borlaug Dialog speech at the 2014 World Food Conference, which is held in Des Moines, Iowa.
Dr. Geradine Mukeshemana, doctoral graduate of the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, who studied under Dr. James Kelly, will giving a Borlaug Dialog speech at the 2014 World Food Conference, which is held in Des Moines, Iowa. This year, the theme of the conference is "The Greatest Challenge in Human History: Can we feed 9 billion people by 2050?"
Until recently, Mukeshemana had been working with the Biosciences eastern and central Africa-International Livestock Research Institute (BecA-ILRI) Hub as a plant molecular biologist on aphid vectored bean viruses. In July 2014 she was appointed Rwanda’s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI).
When recently interviewed, Mukeshimana responded to questions about her appointment, saying, “I didn’t expect it at all. But when I was appointed, I told myself, this is an opportunity to serve my country and Rwandans and I’m happy about it. We [MINAGRI] are here to help Rwandans get where they need to be. We are not working for ourselves, but for all Rwandans and our country, so we are going to work as hard as we can to increase plant and animal productivity although we are facing climate challenges."
