Year of Honorary Fellowship, 2015
Professor Zeyaur Khan is recognized worldwide for his discovery and wide-scale implementation of the Push-Pull technology – a pro-poor scientific innovation, and its subsequent adaptation to climate change for enhancing food security and environmental sustainability for small-holder cereal-livestock African farmers through integrated management of stemborers, parasitic striga weeds and soil fertility, while providing quality fodder in cereal-livestock farming systems. About 800,000 people in more than 110,000 households in eastern Africa are now food secure through adoption of both conventional and climate-smart Push-Pull technology. Prof Khan’s goal is to end hunger and poverty for 10 million people by extending Push-Pull technology to 1 million households in sub-Saharan Africa by 2020.
Prof Khan is Honorary Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences and of the TWAS (The World Academy of Sciences). He is the Thomas Odhiambo Distinguished Research Fellow based at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) in Kenya where he presently holds a position of Principal Scientist and Leader of Habitat Management Program. He serves as an Adjunct Professor of Entomology at Cornell University in United States of America and is presently an Extra-Ordinary Professor of Life Sciences at University of North-West in South Africa. He is the recipient of 2015 Louis Malassis International Prize for Outstanding Career in Agriculture for his contribution in the field of agriculture and food security. He also won the 2011 TWAS prize in Agricultural Sciences for enhancing food security and environmental sustainability in Africa through Push-Pull technology.
