Contact: Vanessa Beeson

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Scientists from Senegal and Mali recently visited Mississippi State University as Cochran Fellows. During the fellowship, these agricultural professionals gained firsthand skills and knowledge related to climate smart agriculture, agricultural trade, agribusiness development, management, policy and marketing. The program, named after U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), is funded by the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. The project is hosted through MSU’s International Institute.

Front row: Boubacar Ly, sector chief at CMDT, a Malawian cotton company; Padmanava Dash, assistant professor in the MSU Department of Geosciences; Suzanne Bullington, group translator and MSU French graduate student; K. Raja Reddy, research professor in the MSU Department of Plant and Soil Sciences and SPAR director; Shrinidhi Ambinakudige, associate professor in MSU’s Department of Geosciences; Mamari Berthe, sector chief at CMDT; and Prem Paranjuli, associate professor in MSU’s Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering.

Back row: Bill Herndon, associate vice president of MSU’s Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine; Abdou Mbodji, chief manager at SAED, an agricultural firm in Senegal; Maimouna Ndour, research assistant for the AfricaRice Center in Ivory Coast, Africa; Drissa Bagayoko, sector chief at CMDT; Birahima Coulibaly, sector chief at CMDT; Herve Sanghapi, group translator and MSU physics graduate student; Birame Diouf, environment and climate change specialist for CONGAD, a nongovernmental consortium in Africa; and Mike Phillips, head and professor of the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences.