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Biographies of Resource People

The Answer To World Hunger & Poverty? Public Forum 2005

Africa:
Mwananyanda Mbikusita Lewanika is Executive Director of the National Institute for Scientific & Industrial Research (NISIR) Zambia and is Chairperson of the South African Development Community Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and Biosafety. In addition, he has been on the Zambian Government delegations to Ministry Conferences of the World Trade Organization. He was also the Zambian representative in the negotiations that that lead to the adoption of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. In 2002, Dr Lewanika presented a position paper on behalf of the Crop and Soils Research Branch Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, National Science and Technology Council and NISIR to the government on the topic of genetically modified food aid.

Ibrahima Coulibaly is from the village of Nangola in Mali. He completed his studies in agricultural engineering and then established himself as a peasant farmer. As a farmer he got involved in various peasant farming organizations including the Association of Professional Producers of Mali where he is now Manager of External Affairs. Mr. Coulibaly is one of the first peasant farm leaders to participate in the formulation of agricultural policy in Mali. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the African Network of Peasant Farmer Organizations. He is also President of the National Coordinating Body of Peasant Farmer Organizations that was chosen by the Malian government to be the coordinating body to help build Mali’s new agricultural policy and law, and is mandated to hold public consultations. Mr. Coulibali is also a founding member of the Malian Coalition for the Preservation of National Genetic Heritage.

Dr. Melaku Worede is internationally renowned for his pioneering work in plant genetic research and in restoring the foundations of Ethiopia's food security. In 1989, Dr. Worede was the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (often referred to as the “alternate Nobel Prize”) for his achievements in the field of genetic research. Dr. Worede is a leading Ethiopian genetic material expert and ex-Director of one of the world's finest gene banks, the Plant Genetic Resource Centre located in Addis Ababa. He presently serves as International Scientific Advisor to the Unitarian Services Committee’s Seeds of Survival Program.

Asia:
Masanagari Narsamma owns about two acres of farmland in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Dozens of crops thrive on her biodiverse farm, grown through ecological practice, without the use of chemicals. Narsamma has organized dozens of women to practice ecological farming and has provided leadership to thousands of women, becoming an icon in her community. Narsamma has traveled to a number of South Asian countries including Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to participate in seminars, consultations and farmer exchanges, articulating women’s perspectives on biodiversity in agriculture. In 1997 Narsamma acquired filmmaking skills and was instrumental in setting up Community Media Trust, the first media organization in India that is completely owned and managed by rural women. She will film the participants’ visit to Canada.

Begari Sammamma is a small farmer and highly regarded seed keeper in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Ms Sammamma is an ecological farmer and practices a highly biodiverse farming system based on traditional local varieties to meet her family’s food and nutrition needs. She was one of the pioneering small farmers in India who, 15 years ago, started practicing permaculture principles on her farm. For the past ten years Ms Sammamma has also been working with dalit (so called “untouchable caste”) women’s groups, helping them organize ecological farming. Ms Sammamma has been one of the leaders of the 5000-strong community of women in the Deccan Development Society, a grassroots organization through which the women have established community food and seed security systems.

Periyapatna Venkatasubbaiah (P. V.) Satheesh has been working for over two decades with low-income rural communities, including small and marginal women farmers in the semi-arid tracts of South India. His work has focused on productivity enhancement of degraded lands, sustainable agriculture, watersheds, rejuvenation of common property resources, and strengthening food security in poor communities. Mr. Satheesh is one of the founding members of the Deccan Development Society (DDS), a two-decade old grassroots organization that works with women’s Sanghams (voluntary village level associations of the poor) in about 75 villages 100 kms from Hyderabad, the capital of the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The 5000 women members of DDS represent the poorest of the poor in their village communities. Mr. Satheesh has also been instrumental in setting up a number of community level structures including the Community Grain Fund (a community level food security system) and the Community Gene Fund (community seed banks).

West Asia:
Maryam Rahmanian is Executive Director of Iran’s Centre for Sustainable Development & Environment (CENESTA) that has been active in the country for more than 20 years and is currently host of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy. She is engaged in several projects both at the policy and field levels related to food sovereignty, pastoralism, Mobile Indigenous Peoples, and agroecology, particularly in the region of West and Central Asia and North Africa.

Latin America:
Camila Montecinos is an agronomist who, for 17 years, worked at the Centre for Education and Technology in Chile, the first Chilean non-governmental organization to work with farmers on agricultural issues. She is also the former global coordinator of the Community Biodiversity Development and Conservation project. Ms Montecinos currently works for Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN) and has worked with farmers all of her professional life.

Melina Hernández Sosa is Zapotec from the Oaxaca region of Mexico. She comes from a community of small farmers and grew up helping her family grow crops, of which corn is the most important staple. Ms Sosa and her family live in the region of Mexico where local corn varieties were found contaminated with genetically modified corn. Ms Sosa works with the the Unión de Organizaciones de la Sierra Juárez de Oaxaca (UNOSJO), a non-governmental organization that provides technical and organization support to farmers in the region. She also works with rural women on issues of reproductive health and women's rights.