Australian envoy to Kenya visits Australian funded agricultural research programs at the BecA-ILRI Hub

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Written on Friday, 20 March 2015 07:37

The Head of Mission at the Australian High Commission in Kenya, HE John Feakes visited ILRI on 11 March 2015 to acquaint himself with various agricultural research programs funded by the Australian Government through the partnership between BecA-ILRI Hub and Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO.

 
During the visit, HE Feakes who was accompanied by Dr Paul Greener, ‎Senior Specialist - Agricultural Productivity and Markets at Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and key link in the BecA-CSIRO partnership, held discussions with the ILRI director general, Jimmy Smith. Thereafter, he met with BecA-ILRI Hub staff and project partners to get an overview of the partnership; the research projects; and the capacity building activities.

While at the Hub, HE Feakes took a tour of the lab facilities and was able to see the nutrition and mycotoxin analytical laboratory that was established in 2011 through the BecA-CSIRO partnership and which has since hosted work of more than 60 researchers, from seven African countries, Australia, Europe and North America, significantly increasing the capacity for mycotoxin research on the continent.

HE Feakes also met with research fellows conducting their research at the BecA-ILRI Hub under the Africa Biosciences Challenge Fund fellowship program which is co-funded by the Australian and Swedish Governments, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture.

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