Florence Wambugu

Florence Mūrìngì Wambūgū (born 23 August 1953) is a Kenyan plant pathologist specialized in virology and genetic engineering. Wambūgū is the founder and Director of Africa Harvest, Kenya. She has used 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.

Early life Wambūgū 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. She obtained her Master of Science in botanical pathology from North Dakota State University, United States in 1984; and earned her PhD in virology from the University of Bath, England in 1991. Her PhD on ‘In vitro and epidemiological studies of sweet potato virus diseases in Kenya’ 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.

Career Wambūgū 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 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 farmers’ produce, and linking farmers with existing markets.

She was the Africa Regional Director of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri Biotech Applications(ISAAA) in Nairobi. Wambūgū was a Research Scientist at Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (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.

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). The virus-resistant genetically modified sweet potato is the first genetically modified crop in Sub-Saharan Africa with high yields compared to the regular sweet potato.

Banana tissue culture Wambugu conducted research on banana tissue culture in conjunction with KARI, Kenya, John Innes Center in United Kingdom, and the Institute for Tropical and Subtropical Crops in South Africa. The project produced safe, disease-resistant and high yielding banana cultures that helped banana farmers in Kenya. Banana and plantains are common foods in Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and West Africa. Wambugu, in the Washington Post asserts that, "It is time for Africa to begin thinking and operating as a stakeholder, rather than accepting the ‘victim mentality’ created by opponents of biotechnology. The priority of Africa must be to feed its people and to sustain agricultural production and the environment.” At the U.S House of representatives Committee, Wambugu stated the need for regulatory policies and institutions in African states to govern and advocate for genetically modified foods safety, adoption, consumption, and awareness.

In February 2004, the science magazine, New Scientist, reported that the project had failed. Awards Florence Wambūgū is recipient of various awards: Woman of the Year 2001 by American Biographical Institute

Publications

Wambugu, F., Che, P. et al (2016). Elevated vitamin E content improves all-trans β-carotene accumulation and stability in biofortified sorghum. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113(39), 11040–11045. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1605689113

Wambugu, Florence & Kamanga, Daniel. (2014). Biotechnology in Africa: Emergence, Initiatives and Future. DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-04001-1

Wambugu, F. Why Africa needs agricultural biotech. Nature 400, 15–16 (1999).