Regular readers of this newsletter likely know who Dr. Henry Fred Ojulong is. What they probably don’t know is why he became involved in food security. So, we recently connected with him to find out what led him in that career direction.
For those who don’t know, Dr. Ojulong is a Senior Scientist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics and is leading our Pearl Millet project in Zimbabwe.
Through this innovative project, ICRISAT and their partners at HarvestPlus hope to spur the widespread adoption of iron-fortified pearl millet at smallholder farms throughout Zimbabwe. The project is funded by a Grow Further grant and aims to combat childhood malnutrition and high rates of anemia in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands region. We asked Ojulong about his personal journey, why he decided to become a crop scientist, and how he found the opportunity to work with Grow Further. As he explained, it all started at a very young age for him.
A multinational ambition
Dr. Ojulong works out of ICRISAT’s Nairobi office as the lead for “finger millet and pearl millet for east and southern Africa” as he explained. He now is working with farmers in rural Zimbabwe. However, Ojulong shared with us that he originally hails from Uganda, where he became very familiar with millets from a young age. He’s also been long exposed to sorghum, an East African staple that he also knows well.
“I come from the lowland areas of eastern Uganda, so all my life I’ve been with this crop,” he said. “And even better still, my father was a technician in sorghum in the East African community back then. “So, I remember going to the house library and seeing different pictures of sorghum and millet.”
This long exposure to these crops and the farms growing them and the influence of his science and technology-minded father eventually propelled Ojulong toward pursuing a career in plant sciences.
“I am a plant breeder for ICRISAT,” he proudly stated. “I started work on staple crops because I have grown up seeing these crops grow and also eating them.”
He told us that his most rewarding experiences involve interacting directly with farmers and seeing them respond to his efforts at helping them grow more food.
“The rewarding experience has been accompanying farmers to their fields, and then you see how happy they are to see a variety doing well—and you persuaded them into releasing that variety,” he said. Ojulong said he also takes joy in visiting farmers’ homes, where they often proudly show him the season’s harvest that his work helped to create.
“Pearl millet, being a staple crop, is not known to donors, and the work we do is mainly donor-driven.”
Finding Grow Further
Dr. Ojulong says he and his colleagues stumbled across information on Grow Further and our mission through an investigative web search.
“I was with colleagues looking through opportunities for research and we came across their website,” he recalled. “The most important thing is that we were keying in words like ‘food security,’ ‘sustainability,’ and ‘nutrition’ and [Grow Further] appeared as one of them…so we decided to apply.”
He said a review of our information and what we were looking for in grant applicants meshed nicely with his passions and interests.
“What [Grow Further’s] goal and objectives are happen to be what I’m interested in,” Dr. Ojulong said. “They’re interested in enabling the farmers, scientists, and consumers to be self-sustainable in food, to have a nutritious diet. And they’re also interested in the environment and improving nutrition generally.”
The first call for proposals at Grow Further elicited more than 700 applications for grants from around the world. Not all of these research ideas could be funded. Dr. Ojulong and ICRISAT were not among those projects chosen in the first round of grant issuances, but we kept their application and funded it last year.
Ojulong said that connecting with Grow Further has been transformative. It’s not easy to secure outside funding support for the sort of project ICRISAT is now running in Zimbabwe alongside HarvestPlus. They’re seeking to develop and identify the best potential varieties of iron-rich pearl millet to propagate on farms throughout Zimbabwe. These crop varieties must also prove drought-resistant, especially in light of the devastating drought that much of Zimbabwe has recently experienced.
“Pearl millet, being a staple crop, is not known to donors, and the work we do is mainly donor-driven,” Ojulong says when asked what’s changed since his team was awarded the Grow Further grant.
“We were having difficulty promoting a very valuable crop we have,” he added. “Now with funds from Grow Further…we should be able to release the varieties and promote them among the different farmers and communities.”
Full steam ahead
Ojulong, his colleagues, and partners at ICRISAT and HarvestPlus are well on their way to achieving their goals. He said they are making rapid progress, though we’re still in the early days of this partnership.
“We are almost at the final stages of rolling out the product,” he shared. “We have already tested [the varieties] with the farmers, and the farmers love it.”
We’re excited to be working alongside Dr. Ojulong and all of his team members in Zimbabwe as we try to develop a crop that will deliver greater climate resilience and better nutrition to Zimbabwe. He said the feeling is mutual.
Their experience with Grow Further has been “very exciting, rewarding, very interactive,” Ojulong said.
“I hope together we shall achieve a very good impact.”
— Grow Further
Photo: Dr. Henry Fred Ojulong. Joseph Gakpo for Grow Further.
