International Programs

Activities in Africa

The following summarizes experience and expertise in Africa at Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. For further information, please contact Deanna Behring, director of international programs, by telephone at 863-0249 or via e-mail.

Africa

The College has hosted two groups of the Norman E. Borlaug African Women in Science fellowships; one in the Spring and Fall of 2007. Selected for their potential as future leaders of Africa’s agricultural research programs, nine Borlaug Fellows from Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zambia were matched with PSU faculty in Food Science, Horticulture, Agronomy, Agricultural and Extension Education, Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, Forest Resources and Nutritional Science. Under the direction of faculty mentors, the women conducted independent research projects, enhanced their knowledge of the science of agriculture, and increased their understanding of new research technologies available to them. After spending approximately six weeks at Penn State, the Borlaug Fellows presented their research results in a Washington, DC seminar hosted by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service and USAID. Since returning to their home countries, the Borlaug Fellows are continuing their work on nutrition, food safety, rainwater and greywater usage, GIS, forestry, and extension. Many are maintaining a close contact with their PSU mentors. Photos of our Fall 2007 group participating in the 2007 UNA-USA annual dinner can be viewed here.

Peter Linehan, School of Forest Resources, has more than nine years of international experience with long- and short-term assignments in Africa, including Senegal, Burkina Faso, Gambia, and Niger. Dr. Linehan's work has emphasized sustainable use of natural resources, participatory planning for rural community development, and an integrated approach to natural resource management. He has focused on self-help activities for the development of the rural economy and is experienced in formal and informal training and education programs, natural resource sampling and analysis, economic modeling, and analysis for natural resource utilization. Dr. Linehan is fluent in French.

Dr. Robert Weaver, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, has extensive experience developing and managing economic project activities. His work in Africa spans field-level survey work with smallholders in Guinea and market participants to ministerial-level committee support and management of countrywide round tables in Zaire. His work in Africa has often involved coordination across multiple donors. The focus of his experience parallels that of his academic career--economic policy analysis with a focus on market and trade reforms and their impacts on food security, income, and productivity of domestic resources. He recently participated in projects in China and Korea.

Dr. Michael C. Saunders, Department of Entomology, has been working under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to develop a knowledge-based model for identifying the social, political, economic, and biophysical characteristics of African communities in order to characterize their capacity to implement community-based natural resource management. In October 2000, Dr. Saunders joined a World Bank delegation in Zambia to participate in the Bank's midterm review of that country's Environmental Support Program. In January 2002, he trained representatives from eight USAID missions in sub-Saharan Africa in the use of his natural resource management software, NetWeaver and GeoNetWeaver. In June 2003, Dr. Saunders participated in NetWeaver and GeoNetWeaver training in Dakar, Senegal, for twelve representatives of USAID missions in West Africa.

Namibia
In May 2003, the college received a competitive grant from the Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development (ALO) for work in Northern Namibia. The Namibia project was based on the college’s previous experience in Kenya. Drs. Audrey Maretzki and Koushik Seetharaman (Food Science), along with Jim Dunn (Ag Economics) worked with the Small Business Development Center at the University of Namibia (UNAM), Women’s Action for Development (WAD) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to increase the local availability of nutritious, moderately priced complementary foods for those with special nutritional needs, especially individuals living with HIV/AIDS. The project, Healthy Harvest: Enhancing Educational and Economic Opportunities for Women Agriculturalists in Namibia, took an innovative approach by establishing a women’s cooperative in Northern Namibia to produce culturally acceptable porridge mix using crops grown locally, thus addressing the development objectives of enhancing the socioeconomic status of women, increasing agricultural productivity in the region, and reducing the dependence of Namibia on imported foods. In June 2006, Ed Mills (Dairy and Animal Science) received a Tag-Along grant from the Office of International Programs to assess the possibility that the Healthy Harvest Cooperative could also process and market a unique meat-based product. The product, called a Chiparoo, was developed by Steven Kieras, a Food Science graduate student who worked on the Kenya NutriBusiness project. See the Final Project report here (PDF file).

Ivory Coast and Ghana
The college’s work in Africa involves technology transfer in Ivory Coast and Ghana of biotechnology methods for cacao improvement. Under the direction of Dr. Mark Guiltinan, director of the American Cocoa Research Institute Program in the Molecular Biology of Cacao, we have stationed a postdoctoral scholar in Ghana to work with local cacao researchers setting up plant biotechnology laboratories. Our work will contribute to the ongoing USAID Sustainable Tree Crops Program. We hope to contribute to cacao improvement via development of fast propagation methods for cacao and plan to widen our transfer efforts this spring to include Nigeria and Cameroon.

Lake Malawi
Dr. Jay Stauffer, School of Forest Resources, conducts both teaching and research in Malawi. Dr. Stauffer holds an adjunct appointment of professor at the University of Malawi and has taught ichthyology to help train African students in cataloging, managing, and conserving the unique resources of Lake Malawi. The focus of the research in Malawi is on Schistosomiasis, a debilitating parasitic disease caused by trematodes of the genus Schistosoma, which now occurs in 74 countries and is ranked second to malaria as a cause of human morbidity by a parasitic agent. Schistosomiasis increased in school children (ages 5-15) from 36 percent in 1981 to over 95 percent in 1996. Preliminary data demonstrate that the dramatic decrease in snail-eating fishes in the open waters of Lake Malawi from 1978 to 1994 was correlated to the increase in schistosomiasis reported along the shoreline of Lake Malawi. Dr. Stauffer has demonstrated that the absence/decline of snail-eating fishes is correlated with the increase in schistosomiasis-host snails along the lake shore. Furthermore, Dr. Stauffer has begun to train Malawian divers to identify key spawning sites of these fishes and convince local chiefs to implement sound fisheries management strategies to increase populations of these important fishes. This biological control of schistosomiasis using native fishes can be expanded to other areas throughout Africa.

Kenya
In 1992, Penn State--under the direction of Dr. Audrey Maretzki in our Department of Food Science--collaborated with Tuskegee University and the University of Nairobi to successfully compete for a USAID-University Development Linkage Grant. The seven-year program focused on community development and child nutrition in Kenya and led to the production of weaning foods in rural areas by two project-initiated women's cooperatives. The project (1) involved nearly 2,000 local Kenyan women and 50 faculty and students from the three universities; (2) provided educational opportunities from the grass-roots to the graduate-school level; (3) produced a novel design for a high-volume solar drier; (4) led to the formulation of two culturally-appropriate and nutritious dry porridge mixes; (5) resulted in the creation of two women-managed cooperatives that are successfully manufacturing and marketing the porridges; (6) established the role of women as agro-entrepreneurs engaged in the production of a value-added product that promotes the health of children and others at nutritional risk. A detailed description of the Kenya project titled “Women’s NutriBusiness Cooperatives in Kenya: An Integrated Strategy for Sustaining Rural Livelihoods” appeared in the November 2007 Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. The full text of this article may be viewed free of charge at www.jneb.org. Mary Marete, a doctoral student from Kenya (Agriculture and Extension Education) is studying the Kenya nutri-business cooperatives to learn how such women’s agricultural enterprises could be sustainably established in other rural Kenyan communities.

South Africa
The college participates in a Tertiary Education Linkages Program (TELP) with the University of the North in South Africa. During August 1999, Dr. Thomas Bruening and Dr. Harry Carey (Ag and Extension Education) traveled South Africa to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment. A number of extensive interviews were conducted with professors, instructors, students, and administrators at the university. In addition, field visits were made to several farms to observe some of the outreach projects, including several women gardening projects, cooperative cattle raising, and the school teaching farm. Information was also collected from extension agents, the Minister of Agriculture in the Northern Province, and the administrator of a satellite campus. The college is working with University of Pittsburgh to implement some of the findings of the needs assessment.

Dr. Connie Flanagan (Ag and Extension Education) has ongoing work with South Africa collaborating with colleagues in the Department of Psychology at the University of Capetown over our common interest in youth political development, including faculty exchange and joint publications. Dr. Flanagan also is working with Tsakani Ngomane, a doctoral student from South Africa, on a study of young black leaders in South Africa, "Constructing Democratic Societies: Developing Civic Competencies in the Next Generation."

Dr. Michael Jacobson (School of Forest Resources) has had a number of projects in South Africa. In 2001 he prepared a document for FAO on water pricing on timber plantations. He is also involved in developing a community focus on use of natural forest products in Malawi, Zambia, and Mozambique. Funded by USAID, the project aims to identify factors that make a good enterprise and improve efficiencies of the processes in fruit juice/wine production, thereby increasing the community benefits. Dr. Jacobson also teaches economics at Stellenbosch University. This project also has a component of exchanging students between the Penn State's School of Forest Resources and Stellenbosch.

Swaziland
In 1981, the Penn State and Tennessee State universities were awarded a ten-year, $11 million USAID grant to provide assistance in the design and implementation of an economic plan for Swaziland. The program involved providing academic degree programs and short-term training for Swazi participants, as well as long- and short-term technical assistance and equipment to support the activities. Dr. Harry Carey (Ag and Extension Education) served two tours as part of the project. Dr. Carey assisted in establishing a functional information section within the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, including the planning of a building addition with equipment, building alterations, equipment procurement and setup, and training of staff. Dr. Carey also initiated a desktop publishing system and provided extensive training to extension field staff and subject matter specialists on communications skills and extension teaching methods. He also consulted/provided training to Ministry of Agriculture and USAID personnel in establishing a desktop publishing and print reproduction system in the Botswana Ministry of Agriculture in Gaborone.

Tanzania
In 2006, an interdisciplinary Working Group on Indigenous Knowledge and Development in East Africa was formed with leadership provided by Drs. Audrey Maretzki and Ladislaus Semali, the co-directors (since 1995) of Penn State’s Interinstitutional Consortium for Indigenous Knowledge (ICIK). Please see www.ed.psu.edu/icik/. During Spring Break in 2007, nine PSU faculty, including Maryann Frazier (Entomology) traveled to Arusha, Tanzania to join with academic counterparts from Tumaini University and villagers from Legurki and Chekereni in a 4-day Indigenous Knowledge and Development Workshop. The goal of the workshop was to better understand how local Tanzanian communities could be encouraged to use their traditional knowledge systems in addressing issues related to the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. Please see the Spring 2007 edition of the International Mosaic (page 6) for more information on this workshop. Subsequently, an interdiscipliary faculty team that includes Jill Findeis (Ag Econ and Rural Soc) and Audrey Maretzki received a Level 2 grant from Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) to study the social networks of women agro-entrepreneurs in Northern Tanzania. In 2007, Findeis and Maretzki will be part of a larger group of PSU faculty and students, including Gretchen Kuldau (Plant Pathology), Katelyn Willyerd (Plant Pathology) and Mike Jacobson (Forest Resources), who will travel to Tanzania to address the long-term collaborative research and outreach agenda set by the Working Group’s community development action teams.