About Miss Eluness MASEBO

Education: PhD student in Rural innovations and Extension, a holder of MSc in Rural Development and Extension, BSc in Agricultural Extension and Diploma in Agriculture obtained from the University of Malawi, Bunda College of Agriculture. Background: Eluness Masebo is competent and ambitious extension expert and Agriculturalist, who has the required qualifications along with comparable skills in lecturing, delivering tutorials, examining, assessing students, designing projects, developing strategic plans and proposals, interpreting agriculture development and extension policies, formulating strategies for implementing agriculture development Programmes. She has worked with Umodzi Consulting as Project coordinator under the Livelihood Improvement Programme in Neno district, Self-Help Africa under the Kulima Better project as a Farmer Field School and Resilience Technical Lead in the Consortium of four organizations (PLAN Malawi, Evangelical Association of Malawi, Action Aid and Self-Help Africa as a lead organization. Prior to Self Help Africa, she has worked with the Ministry of Agriculture Irrigation and Water Development, Department of Agriculture Extension Services (DAES) as the Assistant District Agriculture Development Officer (ADADO), Extension Methodologies Officers (EMO), Coordinator for Sustainable Agriculture Productivity Programme (SAPP) and Agriculture Sector Wide Approach (ASWAP).

Research Interest for: Miss Eluness MASEBO

The Neglected Underutilized crops (NUCs)

The research interest talks about Neglected and Underutilized Crops (NUCs). These are plants that could help in addressing problems like hunger, poor nutrition, climate change, and biodiversity loss. The plants haven’t been researched enough but received little attention by bleeding programmes and policies. NUCs don’t get as much attention or funding as the major staple crops like maize, rice, and wheat. These NUCs are very important, especially in areas which are affected by climate change. They are resilient to harsh weather conditions and provide more nutrients and act as a source of income local communities. However, NUCs experience some challenges like access to markets, little attention from government, social cultural barriers and social issues make it hard for people to start using NUCs widely. Research by (Lizumi 2020) showed that people mostly focus on main staples key crops like maize, rice, potatoes, and wheat. However, the neglected underutilized crops (NUCS) don't get enough attention in agricultural policies limiting their contribution to food and nutrition security (Adhikari et al., 2017).

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