Sylvester Oikeh

Dr Sylvester O. Oikeh has more than 30 years of interdisciplinary experience in research-for-development projects covering project formulation, project and partnership management, natural resources management, crop improvement and deployment, and plant nutrition. He joined the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) since 2009 as a Project Manager for the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) Project (now TELA Maize Project) and coordinates the operational management and monitors the implementation of activities across ten public and private sector organizations in seven African countries. He worked in Africa Rice Centre for five years as a Principal Scientist/Soil-Fertility Agronomist and Project Leader. He developed four integrated soil fertility management packages and two farmer handbooks to support the deployment of the New Rice for Africa (NERICA). He also held various positions at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) for over ten years. Further, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA, where he established for the first time, the link between enhanced iron and zinc in maize grains with improvement in human nutrition using an in vitro technique (model gut-system). Dr Oikeh has over 90 publications in major scientific journals, proceedings, book chapters, books and monographs. Sylvester is a Nigerian.