Obama names A&T chancellor to agriculture board

Dr. Harold L. Martin, Sr.

The White House announced yesterday that President Obama has appointed N.C. A&T Chancellor Harold L. Martin, Sr., to the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development.

The board is part of the U.S. Agency for International Development. It advises the agency on agriculture and higher education issues regarding  food insecurity in developing countries.

The School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at N.C. A&T is addressing international food security issues in a number of ways.  Among them are these two research projects:

• Dr. Manuel Reyes is introducing conservation agriculture techniques to farmers in Cambodia and the Philippines (more information: Evolution magazine, Spring 2011, Page 19).
• Dr. Lijun Wang and Dr. Abolghasem Shahbazi are among the leaders of the university’s new NSF CREST Bioenergy Center, which is developing the technology to produce biofuels more efficiently from non-food stock (Bioenergy Center website; Re:search magazine, Page 4).