Member
Dr. Issoufou Kapran a citizen of Niger Republic, is currently Senior Scientist and Seed Specialist in charge Seed Systems at the West and Central Africa Regional Hub of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Bamako, Mali.
Prior to his appointment in ICRISAT, he worked for 10 years at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) successively as a , Senior Program Officer for seed production and dissemination in the Program for Africa’s Seed Systems (PASS), and Program Coordinator for AGRA West Africa’s Agricultural Transformation Program. He contributed to farmer access to quality seeds of improved varieties notably by facilitating AGRA grants and loans and capacity building to more than 40 seed companies and cooperatives in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Dr. Kapran started his career in Niger where he was in charge of the sorghum improvement program at the country’s national research institute INRAN (Institut National de la RechercheAgronomique du Niger). He led the breeding and release of the first sorghum hybrids in Niger and initiated a seed unit to actively promote and support private entry into sorghum hybrid and other seed production. The unit availed foundation seeds with capacity building to individual farmers and seed cooperatives, and co-organized the first West African Hybrid Sorghum and Pearl Millet Seed Workshop to create a momentum for quality seeds in the sub region.
He holds a PhD in plant breeding from Purdue University in the USA, where also he was awarded a Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2015.