Nora Ndege credits her mother for sparking her interest in agriculture. “I learned farming skills from my mother, but then, I didn’t really like agriculture,” says the young scientist who spent part of her childhood in Kenya’s Kisii and Nakuru counties. “Whenever I wanted to speak to my mother, I would have to look for her in the fields, where she grows finger millet and maize.” Her mother, who would work on other people’s farms to get additional income to pay school fees, is still farming and earning a living from her produce. She sends food from her farm to all five of her children whose families live in Nairobi. “In a small way, she ensures household food security for all of us,” says Ndege. “And this can be transferred to a nation.
We need behavior change for both rural and urban communities to ensure that they incorporate dietary diversity in meals.
Field of Research
How can a country achieve food sufficiency and security when most of its food is imported from neighboring countries.
AWARD Fellow, Nora Ndege attends the Second International Conference on Global Food Security
Date: April 28, 2016
Research fellow Norah Ndege attended the second International Conference on Global Food Security, as part of her career development fellowship with AWARD. At the conference organized by Elsevier and held at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York City from October 11–14, 2015, Nora presented her paper titled, “Reducing post-harvest losses of perishable fruit through processing: How efficient is training for behaviour change of smallholder farmers in Eastern Kenya.