The Board for International Food and Agricultural Development (BIFAD) is honored to recognize Dr. Thomas (Thom) Jayne as the recipient of the 2021 Senior Researcher Award for Scientific Excellence in a Feed the Future Innovation Lab.
With this award, BIFAD recognizes research efforts that contribute to the interrelated and interdependent objectives of the U.S. Government’s Global Food Security Strategy: inclusive and sustainable agriculture-led economic growth, strengthened resilience among people and systems, and a well-nourished population. Dr. Jayne is a University Foundation Professor Emeritus in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University, currently on a three-year assignment with the African Development Bank as Special Advisor to the President. Dr. Jayne is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Regional Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes (ReNAPRI).
The BIFAD awards panel highlighted Dr. Jayne’s impactful research on food systems transformation in Africa. Most of Dr. Jayne’s more recent research and outreach is through his role as the Capacity Strengthening Lead with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research, Capacity, and Influence, and as a contributor to both the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Policy and the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sustainable Intensification.
As one example of Dr. Jayne’s many extraordinary accomplishments, Jayne served as lead author on a landmark report documenting the rapid rise of medium-scale entrepreneurial African farms and their impact on the agricultural transformation process underway in much of Africa. This work led to the governments of Malawi and Zambia calling for a review of land and commercial agricultural programs in their countries.
