Certified Soybean Agronomy Course for West Africa

Dr. George Awuni is an Assistant Research Professor with Mississippi State University’s Department of Plant and Soil Sciences. Dr. Awuni is also the Manager of the Soybean Innovation Lab’s SMART (Soybean Management with Appropriate Technology) Farm based in Tamale, Ghana. As the SMART Farm Manager Dr. Awuni oversees the Soybean Innovation Lab’s agronomic research trials on varietal testing, soil quality assessments, planting date, fertility inputs as inoculum, phosphorous, lime, and herbicide usage in soybean production. Dr. Awuni is a native of Ghana and devotes six months every year to overseeing the planting, harvest and evaluation at SIL’s SMART Farm.  

Dr. Daniel Reynolds is a Professor and the Edgar E. and Winifred B. Hartwig Endowed Chair in Soybean Agronomy at Mississippi State University (MSU). Dr. Reynolds leads the Soybean Innovation Lab’s agronomic research at the SMART (Soybean Management with Appropriate Research and Technology) Farm in northern Ghana. Dr. Reynolds collaborates with Dr. George Awuni, an MSU postdoctoral researcher based in northern Ghana, to conduct production trials evaluating best practices across a range of soil types including fertilizer rates, inoculum use, pest management strategies, variety selection, planting date, dual and succession cropping, sowing depth and plant population densities. Dr. Reynolds and Awuni’s research provides critical knowledge on the role of agronomics in tropical soybean development.

Dr. Andrew Margenot is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a soil scientist for the Soybean Innovation Lab. His research addresses the literal foundation of all cropping systems: soils. He is advancing how we monitor and manage soils as natural capital. His research team evaluates how human activities can enhance or compromise soil services to human societies, with an emphasis on food security from urban and rural agroecosystems in the U.S. Midwest and East Africa.

Dr. Goldsmith brings new ideas about markets, commercial practices, and management to help small- and medium-scale farmers escape the trap of persistent poverty while helping small agribusinesses establish a vibrant private sector. He leads USAID’s Feed the Future Lab for Soybean Value Chain Research bringing 50 researchers across 15 countries together to develop soybean as a technology to reduce poverty and malnutrition in the poorest countries of the world. He is using his soybean research and teaching experience over the past 15 years in Brazil and Argentina to make a difference in Africa and other developing countries.