Program Promotes Women in International Agriculture

Women from three African nations spent six weeks in residence at Penn State this spring promoting technological progress in the developing world and laying the foundation for long-term cultural and scientific exchange.

The Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellows Program brought four female researchers from Africa to the University Park campus to establish one-on-one research collaborations with faculty mentors. The fellows—Subulola Fosoyiro of Nigeria, Lydia Chabala of Zambia, and Elizabeth Kizito and Stellamaris Sendagi of Uganda—met with Penn State faculty, enrolled in selected conferences and short courses, made site visits, and conducted research.

The program—funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agriculture Service—is named after a Nobel Prize-winning researcher seen by many as the father of the Green Revolution. Deanna Behring, director of international programs for the College of Agricultural Sciences, believes it presents Penn State with a perfect opportunity to focus on women in agricultural science.

“We jumped at the opportunity to host women scientists,” Behring says. “Many times in agriculture, the scholars we host are men. This opens up a variety of other opportunities for unique mentorships for women and girls in agriculture. This is only the third time USDA has offered this program.”

Audrey Maretzki, professor emeritus of food science, says several interesting gender issues come into play in hosting female African agriculturists.

“Women are the backbone of traditional subsistence agriculture in Africa,” she says. “They’re also the backbone of the community and the family, so a lot of responsibility falls on their shoulders. There’s a need to see gender issues not just as a woman’s responsibility but also as an opportunity to help African men be supportive and understanding. The Borlaug Fellows are very nontraditional, of course, but all will tell you that it’s really important for them to have the support of family and spouses back home. It’s all a part of what it will take to move from Africa’s current levels of food insecurity to a more integrated agriculture as part of a growing economy.”

Behring explains that the success of the program is highly dependent on the participation of faculty mentors. “The focus of the program is developing future research collaborations so that it becomes more than a one-time, six-week program,” she says, “but instead a mentorship program that will help these women and grow their capacity to be partners in a global research enterprise.”

Participating as faculty mentors this spring were Catherine Cutter, associate professor of food science; Stephanie Doores, professor of food science; James Hamlett, associate professor of agricultural engineering; Rick Day, associate professor of soil science and environmental information systems; and Dawn Luthe, professor of plant stress biology.

Fosoyiro, a food scientist at the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training in Ibadan, Nigeria, is working with Cutter and Doores to improve processing and storage technologies for traditional foods, starting with extending the shelf life of tofu. Limited access to meat in rural sections of southern Nigeria, she says, makes home-processed tofu an economical, nutritious alternative for lactose-intolerant babies and adults. She hopes to increase tofu’s shelf-life through the use of spices to control pathogens and microbes.

“We don’t have consistent electricity in much of our country, so having tofu for a week will help them to process larger batches,” she says. “This research is for the people.”

“We hope to develop a pool of Borlaug fellows that will take what they’ve learned to their home institutions and countries and invest in building a network,” says Behring, “bringing women together periodically or bringing them all back to Penn State some day to share their ideas and frustrations, help one another solve problems and build new opportunities.”

—Gary Abdullah