Zyangani Chirambo, a fish culturist extension officer for Zambia’s Department of Fisheries, supervises the development of technologies that will improve fish production and thereby enhance income-generating activities. Her current focus is on aquaculture (fish farming), teaching farmers to use local resources in a sustainable manner. “It’s important to get farmers’ feedback, so we can adapt technologies to their individual conditions,” Chirambo says.
The firstborn in a family of eight children whose parents are in ministry, Chirambo has a heart for the disadvantaged.
There are lots of widows and orphans in Zambia due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic,” she explains. “Elderly women are looking after their orphaned grandchildren and they need extra income. I hope that my research will help these vulnerable groups.
Field of Research
Developing technologies in fish farming in line with the priorities of widow-headed households, including natural breeding of African catfish for upscaling of aquaculture in Zambia.
Empowering Senegalese onion farmers to cope with climate change and increase productivity
Date: Mar 23, 2023
Personality Profile: How a Ghanaian Scientist is working to decrease Ghana’s dependence on tomato paste (Part II)
Date: January 2, 2013
The first part of this was published last week and both episodes have been culled from a recent interview I had with Dr. Mavis Owureku-Asare, a recipient of the OWSD Early Career Fellowship, a prestigious fellowship that awards up to $50,000 to women who have completed their doctorates in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) on Breakfast Daily on Citi TV.
Initiative One Planet Fellowship : la Doctorante Deffa WANE de l'UFR S2ATA parmi les finalistes
Date: Jun 24, 2020
Reflections on 2014 World Food Prize Mavis Owureku-Asare
Date: October 30, 2014
Mavis Owureku-Asare is a specialist in food preservation and post-harvest management of fresh agricultural produce. She is a Research Scientific Officer at the Biotechnology and Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute - Ghana Atomic Energy Commission. She earned her BSc in Nutrition and Food Science and MPhil in Food Science, both from the University of Ghana.
A New Market for Dried Tomatoes in Ghana?
Date: August 17, 2014
The tomato is one of the basic elements in African cooking; and Ghana is no exception to the rule. Although a tomato producer (350,000 tons per year/FAO), the country imports a large quantity to meet the population's needs, primarily because nearly 40-50 percent of tomatoes produced in Ghana are lost or discarded as post harvest losses.
Minimizing Postharvest Losses Among Smallholder Tomato Farmers in Ghana
Date: February 26, 2016
AWARD Fellow Mavis Owureku-Asare is Research Scientific Officer at the Biotechnology and Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute, Ghana Atomic Energy Commission.