Deputy Director General and Director of Research and Innovation (DDG / DRI) at the Africa Rice Center 

Prem Bindraban is Deputy Director General and Director of Research and Innovation (DDG / DRI) at the Africa Rice Center. Prem has two decades of experience at Wageningen University, during which he was seconded at both IRRI and CIMMYT, and another decade with a development NGO. 

As a scientist and manager of Research and Development, Prem is an expert in sustainable use of natural resources land, water, nutrients with strong conceptualizing abilities. He has been thorough in business development based on his global vision and experience in policy recommendations. Prem has actively developed and implemented public-private development programs, has persuasive teaching skills with stimulating leadership qualities for change. 

Prem has been trained in soil and crop modelling and mapping, has developed university courses on Global Food Security and on Theoretical Production Ecology, supervised close to two dozen PhD and numerous MSc students, publishing over 300 research documents. He has extensive experience in rice science having supervised ten PhD students at Wageningen University. 

As the associate director, he co-drafted a “Strategic Plan for Agricultural Development in Africa” at the request of former UN-SG Kofi Annan. In his previous capacities he was Director of ISRIC – World Soil Information and Team leader Natural Resources at Wageningen University. He has generated significant portfolio’s of over 3M€ in rice research, designed and developed a 100M€ Soil Values program to improve soil health for resilient food systems in the Sahelian region in which he acted as the Senior Technical Advisor, and generated multi-million euro’s public-private cooperative programs.  

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