After a rigorous vetting process, Prof. Simon Wagura Ndiritu was recently promoted to Associate Professor, Development Economics at the Strathmore University Business School. He has been serving as a Senior Lecturer at the Business School since May 2015.
Prof. Ndiritu is the academic director of Master of Management in Agribusiness, an Environment for Development Initiative (EfD) senior research fellow and advisor to Kenya Climate Innovation Center Sustainability initiative. He spearheaded the establishment of the Agri-Food Innovation (AFI) Hub where he serves as the Hub lead.
ACADEMIC JOURNEY
Prof. S. Wagura Ndiritu holds a PhD. in Economics from School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He completed his MA (Economics) degree with the best master thesis, and a Bachelor of Education (Economics and Mathematics) degree (First class honours) all from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. Before joining the PhD program he taught at the School of Economics, University of Nairobi, Kenya.
RESEARCH
Prof. Ndiritu received his first research grant in 2016 under the project of Pathways to Resilience in Semi Arid Economies (PRISE). This project focused on researching how pastoralists in semi arid areas in Kenya adapt to the impacts of climate change ; their responses and resilience . The beef value chain in Laikipia was the core focus of this project.
He is currently involved on a project on Leveraging remote sensing and ICT to facilitate yield maximization, structured trading and inclusive value chain participation for smallholder staple grain farmers in Kenya. The project is funded by Innovate UK and is being undertaken by a consortium of institutions, which include AGRI-EPI Centre Limited, Harper Adams University, Usomi Limited and Strathmore University.
Prof. Ndiritu has worked extensively on topics such as Climate change adaptation and mitigation, food security, gender issues, Agricultural technology adoption, Applied Micro- Econometrics, Economics of Water Resources, Livestock Economics, Corporate Environmental performance, and post-harvest losses.
He also has great interest in agribusiness and post-harvest management. He has been engaged in coaching business entrepreneurs in the livestock value chain especially feedlot entrepreneurs in Taita Taveta, Garissa and Laikipia Counties, and poultry SMEs in Kiambu and Nairobi.
Prof. Ndiritu highlights the One health policy dialogue with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (“FAO”) as one of his key milestone research projects in 2020/2021. “Through this project, we seek to understand the business models of the poultry value chain in Kiambu and Nairobi counties and how the models can change if the actors adopt good practices,” he said. Strathmore University Business School serves as the research arm of this project with its role being impact measurement and advice on poultry value chain adoption of good practices.
“We are now finalizing the study on implications of adoption of good practices on business models, profitability, and bankability along the poultry value chain for the urban and peri urban in Kiambu and Nairobi City Counties,” he added.
Prof. Ndiritu has won several prestigious scholarships and awards. For instance, The African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) Academic Board prize for the best Master’s thesis in the 2006/2007 Academic year and the best gender paper for CCAFS 2011 (Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security). His research work has been published in reputable journals.
Access his publications here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=IvH_UjYAAAAJ
Congratulations Prof. Ndiritu!
By Juliet Hinga
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