SPEAKER'S PROFILES

Mpoko Bokanga

Mpoko Bokanga is a food scientist who has been involved in agricultural research and development for more than 20 years. Before joining AATF as its first Executive Director in 2004, Bokanga worked as Industrial Development Officer (Agro-industries) with the Regional Industrial Development Centre of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in Abuja, Nigeria. He also served in the following capacities: as a Research Scientist with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) for 13 years (1989-2002); a visiting Professor of Food Science at the Alabama A & M University in Normal, Alabama; and a Research Associate with Westreco Inc., a Nestlé Research Company based in New Milford, Connecticut, USA. While at IITA, Bokanga developed technologies for processing cassava into new products, which were deployed in over twelve African countries among them Benin, Chad, Ghana, Madagascar, Nigeria, Tanzania and Togo. He has published several papers on the biochemistry and health implications of cyanogenesis in cassava, and was instrumental in the formation of the Working Group on Cassava Safety (WOCAS) in 1994, a sub-committee of the International Society for Tropical Root Crops (ISTRC). The main function of WOCAS is to monitor progress in the understanding and handling of issues related to cassava safety due to the cyanogenesis of the crop. Bokanga is the current chair of ISTRC-AB, the African branch of the ISTRC. He holds a masters degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a doctorate from Cornell University in the USA. Bokanga is a national of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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Speaker's profiles