DSU receives $1.4 Million Grant for West Africa Project
The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service has enlisted a team of DSU faculty members to provide technical expertise in researching and evaluating ongoing USDA projects in the West Africa region.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is providing the DSU faculty team with a $1.4 million grant over five years as part of its “Analytical Support Services and Evaluations for Sustainable Systems in Agriculture, Environment and Trade (ASSESS)” program.
The program is a partnership between DSU, University of Rhode Island and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumas, Ghana.
DSU ASSESS Team: (l-r) Dr. Hankoua Bertrand, Dr. Samuel Besong, Dr. Marikis Alvarez (principal investigator) Dr. Albert Essel and Dr. Michael Casson. The team has been awarded a five-year, $1.4 million USDA grant to evaluate U.S. government agriculture, environmental and trade programs in 21 countries of West Africa.
Dr. Marikis Alvarez, associate dean for research in the DSU College of Agriculture and Related Sciences, is the principal investigator, heading a DSU team that includes: Dr. Albert Essel, associate dean for Cooperative Extension; Dr. Samuel Besong, chair of the Department of Human Ecology; Dr. Hankoua Bertrand, senior research scientist; and Dr. Michael Casson, director of the University Center for Economic Development and International Trade.