I am PhD-candidate at the Plant Production Systems group of Wageningen University holding a MSc in Plant Science. The title of my PhD project is “Towards more sustainable farming systems in the East African highlands”, which I tackle from two angles. In multiple season co-learning cycles with groups of farmers in Kenya (maize based farming systems) and Uganda (banana based farming systems) I explores current opportunities for sustainable intensification and the impacts of using these for participating farmers. In a more theoretical approach, based on survey data, I assess income from farming in current and future farming systems.
My research activities in Uganda are part of the Improving scalable banana agronomy for small scale farmers in highland banana cropping systems in East Africa-project (BMGF-funded). As part of the project I am developing an East African Highland banana version of the FIELD model, which is part of the farm-level NUANCES-FARMSIM model. Moreover, we are working on making banana-specific fertiliser blends available to smallholder farmers in Uganda and to include these in ISFM advise for East African Highland Banana.