Florence Mà «rìngì Wambà «gà « (born 23 August 1953) is a Kenyan plant pathologist specialized in virology and genetic engineering. Wambà «gà « is the founder and Director of Africa Harvest, Kenya. She has pioneered sustainable agricultural solutions through biotechnology to increase food production and combat food insecurity, hunger, malnutrition and poverty in Africa. She was the Africa Regional Director of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri Biotech Applications(ISAAA), Nairobi. She was the Chief Guest speaker at Kenyatta University's 44th graduation ceremony in 2018. She is a Monsanto USA post-doctoral fellow from 1991-1994.
Wambà «gà « was born on 23 August 1953 in Nyeri County, as the sixth-born child in a family of ten, four daughters and six sons. Subsistence farming was part of daily life. From around the age of ten, she worked on the family's sweet potato farm alongside her mother and nine siblings, while her father labored for white settlers elsewhere. The rural upbringing in the foothills of Mount Kenya during the 1950s and 1960s exposed her to persistent food scarcity, with sweet potatoes as the primary staple crop frequently ravaged by blight and pests. She took up to mixing substances to create rudimentary pesticides in an effort to protect yields. Her mother supported her amid limited family resources. The experiences highlighted agriculture's centrality to survival and how agricultural failures perpetuated poverty. This inspired her focus towards botany, agronomy, and innovative crop production to address yield gaps and rural vulnerabilities.
After completing her primary education in the village, she was admitted to a boarding secondary school 60miles away from her home. Her family and clan with the support of her mother agreed to sell the only cow to send Wambugu to school despite prioritization of her male siblings education. She was the first woman to attend the University of Nairobi, Kenya, where she received her Bachelor of Science degree in Botany and Zoology in 1978. She obtained her Master of Science in botanical pathology from North Dakota State University, United States in 1984; and earned her PhD from the University of Bath, England in 1991. Her PhD on âÂÂIn vitro and epidemiological studies of sweet potato virus diseases in Kenyaâ focused on the control of the sweet potato virus.Her specialization in virology and interest in root or tuber crops, led her to work on sweet potatoes, which later became the first genetically modified crop in sub-saharan Africa.
Wambugu conducted a postdoctoral research at the Monsanto Life Sciences Centre in USA.
She was awarded an Honorary Ph.D, Doctorate of Science, from the University of Bath in United Kingdom in 2009.
Wambà «gà « established Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International (AHBFI) in 2002 to boost food production in Africa by providing biotechnological solutions to the crisis of low crop production, hunger, malnutrition and poverty.She is the Chief executive officer and director of the organization. She developed a value chain for Kenyan farmers using five modules: education and information awareness, establishing links between farmers and agronomists while introducing the farmers to new technology, marketing of the farmersâ produce, and linking farmers with existing markets.
Her transformational work in Africa has been featured in a BBC documentary called Jimmy Global Farm.
She was the Africa Regional Director of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri Biotech Applications(ISAAA) in Nairobi. Wambà «gà « was a Research Scientist at Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research in Organization Kenya (KALRO). From 1978 to 1991 she was a Senior research officer (pathologist) and Coordinator of plant biotechnology research at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), Kenya. Thereafter (1991âÂÂ1994), she did a post-doctoral research at the Monsanto Life Sciences Centre.
Wambà «gà « is a leader in public and private partnerships and scientific consortium for the implementation of major projects for crop and tree improvement. For over 30 years, she has focused on agricultural research and contributed to research, development and improvement of maize, pyrethrum, banana, sweet potato and forestry production in Kenya which has significant impact on the livelihoods of small-scale farmers and food production.
She has been board member of Key boards and organizations including; the Private Sector Committee of the CGIAR, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Hunger Task Force, executive committee member of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA); the DuPont Company Biotech Advisory Panel USA; the International Plant Genetic Resource Institute boad of trustees (IPGRI, now called Bioversity International), and vice chair of the African Biotechnology Stakeholders Forum (ABSF).She is a Council Member of the Science Technology and Society of Japan https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A7%91%E5%AD%A6%E6%8A%80%E8%A1%93%E3%81%A8%E4%BA%BA%E9%A1%9E%E3%81%AE%E6%9C%AA%E6%9D%A5%E3%81%AB%E9%96%A2%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B%E5%9B%BD%E9%9A%9B%E3%83%95%E3%82%A9%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A9%E3%83%A0, a steering committee member of the European Action on Global Life Sciences (EAGLES); and a member of the Science Board of the Grand Challenges in Global Health Initiative by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Florence Wambà «gà « was involved in a project to develop a genetically modified (GM) sweet potato. In February 2004, the science magazine, New Scientist, reported that the project had failed.
Florence Wambà «gà « has been the recipient of numerous awards.