Robert B. Zougmoré is the Africa Program Leader of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), based at ICRISAT, Bamako, Mali. He is an agronomist and soil scientist with a PhD in Production Ecology & Resources Conservation from the University of Wageningen, The Netherlands. Dr. Zougmoré is defining and overseeing strategic directions for CCAFS research in the West and Central Africa (WCA) region. This involves coordinating actions that lead to coherent implementation of regional activities from participating Centres and other regional and national partners. One of his major tasks is to communicate regional research outputs and strategy through innovative means in order to project a highly professional image for CCAFS and the CGIAR. He also contributes to the themes of Systems Analysis, and Policy and Impact within the ICRISAT regional research program in WCA.
Before joining ICRISAT, he was a senior staff with the Sahara & Sahel Observatory (Tunisia) where he contributed to the implementation of initiatives pertaining to desertification, land degradation and drought; and to climate change adaptation in Africa. Prior to that, he spent a year in Japan as a Postdoc at JIRCAS, working on the benefit of conservation agriculture for soil and water conservation.
From 1990 to 2007, he was senior researcher and head of the Natural Resources Management and farming systems at the Institute for Environment and Agricultural Research in Burkina Faso. He has developed adaptation options and strategies on climate variability and land degradation in the vulnerable arid and semi-arid ecosystems. He has also been a part-time lecturer at Cape Coast, Niamey and Bobo-Dioulasso Universities, Aghrymet, and the Katibougou Polytechnic Institute in Mali. He has also been the Secretary General of the Africa Soil Science Society.
Dr. Zougmoré has published over 50 papers and book chapters on soil erosion, integrated soil, water and nutrient management options and their economic benefits, and climate-smart agriculture.