USDA Borlaug Fellows begin University of Nebraska-Lincoln stay

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UNL Borlaug Fellows and their faculty mentors at the World Food Prize
Thursday, November 17, 2016

USDA Borlaug Fellows begin University of Nebraska-Lincoln stay

United States Department of Agriculture Foreign Ag Service (USDA-FAS) Borlaug Fellows, Dr. Keziah Ndungu, of Kenya, and Mr. Prudence Lugendo, of Tanzania, arrived in September to begin their fellowship at UNL. Their mentors are Dr. Charles Wortmann, professor, Department of Agronomy and Horticulture; and Dr. Tsegaye Tadesse, research associate professor and climatologist in the School of Natural Resources with the National Drought Mitigation Center, respectively. The Borlaug program provides UNL faculty with the opportunity to create collaborative research partnerships with talented scholars from developing and middle income nations. Over the last year, IANR Global has helped secure six USDA/FAS grants so faculty could host such scholars. In October, the two sets of mentors and fellows attended the World Food Prize Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa.  Jim Remcheck, of the USDA Foreign Ag Service, visited UNL November 14 to meet with the fellows and their mentors, as well as speak with faculty about future opportunities to sponsor and host Borlaug Fellows. 

About the program: 

"The Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellowship Program promotes food security and economic growth by providing training and collaborative research opportunities to fellows from developing and middle-income countries.

Borlaug fellows are generally scientists, researchers or policymakers who are in the early or middle stages of their careers. Each fellow works one-on-one with a mentor at a U.S. university, research center or government agency, usually for 6-12 weeks. The U.S. mentor will later visit the fellow’s home institution to continue collaboration. Fellows may also attend the annual World Food Prize Symposium, held each October in Des Moines, Iowa.

The Borlaug Fellowship Program honors Norman E. Borlaug, the American agronomist, humanitarian and Nobel laureate who is known as the “father of the Green Revolution.” Since the program’s inception in 2004, approximately 700 fellows from 64 countries have participated in research and training focused on a wide array of agriculture-related topics, including agronomy, veterinary science, nutrition, food safety, sanitary and phytosanitary issues, natural resource management, agricultural biotechnology, global climate change, agricultural economics and agricultural policy."

Via the USDA FAS Programs site