New GFAR Management Team

The new GFAR Management Team was elected during the 12th GFAR Steering Committee meeting held on 27 October 2002 in Manila, Philippines.

Dr. Mohammad H. Roozitalab of the Association of Agricultural Research Institutions in the Near East and North Africa (AARINENA) was elected Chairman of GFAR with Dr. Willem Van Vuure of the European Forum on ARD (EFARD) and Dr. Marcio Porto of Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) as Vice-chairs of GFAR and NARS Committee, respectively. The newly elected officers will be joined by Dr. Olanrewaju Smith who was recently selected as the new Executive Secretary of the GFAR Secretariat to complete the new Management Team.

The first year of the new team will be an eventful one given initiatives that are lined-up for the next triennium of GFAR. These include the Dakar 2003 Conference in May where about 400 ARD stakeholders are expected to participate; implementation of three projects that will support GFAR stakeholders; launching of several Global Partnership Programmes (GPPs); reinforcing the NARS Committee of GFAR and the challenge to develop a sustainable financing strategy for GFAR.

Dr. Mohammad H. Roozitalab was born on 27th March 1947 in Kazeroon, Iran and is married and has one daughter. He received his BSc degree in 1970 from University of Tehran in agricultural engineering, soil science and obtained MSc (1974) PhD (1978) in soil science from Oklahoma State University, USA. From 1978-1979, he continued the postdoctoral program at the same university in monitoring ground water fluctuation in Western Oklahoma. In 1979, Dr. Roozitalab returned to his native country where he was appointed the leader of a land reclamation and drainage project in Central Iran in1980. From 1983-1995, he served as Director General of Soil and Water Research Institute in Tehran. In 1995, he was appointed Deputy Head of Agricultural Research Education and Extension Organization (AREO), the umbrella institution for national and provincial research institutes and centers in the Ministry of Agriculture. He held the same position until 2001 when all research institutes in agriculture, natural resources, forestry, livestock and fisheries were merged and he was appointed the Deputy Head for International Scientific and Research Cooperation in the restructured Agricultural Research and Education Organization (AREO). He was elected President of Soil Science Society of Iran three times from 1992 to present and is a member of many national research and scientific councils or commissions.

Dr. M. H. Roozitalab has wide experience in agricultural research cooperation at regional and international levels. He was elected the Vice-President of Association of Agricultural Research Institutions in the Near East and North Africa (AARINENA) in 1996-1998 and 2002 and the President of AARINENA in 1998-2000.

He served CGIAR as a member of Consultative Council from 1999-2001. Since 1998 he represented the WANA region in the Steering Committee of Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR-SC) and contributed a great deal in enhancement and development of partnership in ARD at global and regional levels. He was recently elected Chairman of GFAR for a period of 3 years during GFAR-SC Meeting held last October, in Manila, Philippines.

Dr. Willem Van Vuure is a Dutch national and is currently the General Advisor for International Relations of the Executive Board of the Wageningen University and Research Center (Wageningen UR) in the Netherlands. He is also the European representative to the GFAR Steering Committee and is member of both the Steering Committees of the European Forum (EFARD) and the Netherlands Forum on ARD.

Previous to this, Willem served as the Executive Secretary European Initiative for Agricultural Research for Development (EIARD) of the European Commission in Brussels from 1995 to 1998. He then became the Senior Scientific Officer for International Relations of the Netherlands' Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries from 1990 to 1995 after more than a decade (1978-90) as the Coordinator Agricultural Research for Developing Countries at the Department of Agricultural Research in Wageningen.

Willem was the head/soil scientist of the Soil Survey Department of Suriname's Ministry of Development (1970-78); lecturer/soil surveyor at the Njala University College in Sierra Leone (1968-70); and was a soils surveyor for Agricultural University Wageningen in Turkey (1966). He graduated from the Agricultural University of Wageningen in 1967.

Dr. Marcio Carvalho Marques Porto, was born on September 06, 1950 in Salvador, Brazil. He obtained a B.Sc. degree in 1972 at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. A Masters degree in Agronomy was obtained in 1975 at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Dr. Porto obtained a Ph.D. degree on Agronomy and Plant Genetics (Cellular and Developmental Biology) in 1983, at the University of Arizona, USA.

Marcio Porto joined Embrapa in 1973 as a researcher of Embrapa?s National Research Center for Cassava and Tropical Fruits, located at Cruz das Almas, Brazil, where he was engaged on research on cassava physiology and Head of the Plant Physiology Laboratory and the Agroclimatology Laboratory, Coordinator of the National Cassava Research Program and Director, Research and Development.

In 1989 he joined the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) as a CIAT scientist posted at Ibadan, Nigeria, with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), where he stayed until 1994. At that point he joined IITA as the Agronomist and Assistant Coordinator of the Southern Africa Root Crops Research Network (SARRNET), posted in Maputo, Mozambique and working in the 11 countries members of SADC. In January 1995 he returned to Brazil as the Director for Research and Development at Embrapa Cassava and Tropical Fruits.

In August 1998 Marcio Porto joined FAO as the Chief of the Crop and Grassland Service (AGPC), Plant Production and Protection Division, Department of Agriculture, posted at FAO Headquarters in Rome, Italy. In February 2001 he returned to Brazil to take the post of Head of Embrapa Secretariat for International Cooperation at Embrapa Headquarters, Bras�a.

As the head of Embrapa International Cooperation, Dr. Porto is the main counterpart of Embrapa with global, regional and sub-regional organizations, research institutions and governments of developing and developing countries.

Dr. Olanrewaju Smith, a citizen of Nigeria and Canada, has been recruited as the new Executive Secretary of GFAR. Dr. Smith joins GFAR from the International Development Research Centre (IRDC) in Canada, where he had served as a Senior Manager in the Environment and Natural Resources Management sector for the past 13 years. He replaces Dr. Fernando Chaparro who left GFAR in February 2002.

Dr. Smith holds a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree from the University of Liege, Belgium, a Doctor of Tropical Veterinary Medicine (DTVM) degree and a Diploma in Parasitology from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in Animal and Poultry Science from the University of Guelph in Canada. After an academic career as Professor of Animal Production and Health at Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria spanning 11 years, he joined IDRC, initially serving as Regional Representative for West and Central Africa based at the IDRC Regional Office in Dakar, Senegal, and eventually moving to IDRC headquarters in Canada where he served as a Research Manager.

Dr. Smith brings to GFAR a wealth of agricultural research and development experience accumulated from years of sustained interaction with national and international agricultural research systems, bi- and multilateral development agencies and participation in intergovernmental fora (e.g., UN Convention to Combat Desertification). He is married with two children.