Dr. Chiwimbo Gwenambira

Dr. Chiwimbo Gwenambira

Dr. Chiwimbo Gwenambira is a graduate scholar from Zimbabwe, studying Crop and Soil Sciences at Michigan State University. Agriculture has always been at the core of her world, having had a passion for the field from a very tender age. During 2011, she participated in a service-learning project at Kalamazoo College. As an exchange visitor, she worked in a community garden. Even though this was not at a farm scale, the experience was so fulfilling and enlightening to her that she decided to learn more about agricultural systems from small holder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Currently, Gwenambira is conducting on-farm participatory research with small holder farmers in Malawi, under the Africa RISING project. Generally, she is interested in agro ecological and sustainable intensification research in the small holder farming context. Specific research interests include learning more about below and aboveground productivity of legume-based cropping systems and their soil nutrient balances. The main crop of interest in her research is pigeonpea, which she calls the ‘wonder shrub’.

Contact: gwenambi@msu.edu

Areas of Expertise: Agrobiodiversity, agroecology, agronomy, soil science

Publications:

Gwenambira, C., Chikowo, R., Snapp, S., and B. Mateete.  2015.  Below and aboveground pigeonpea productivity in a novel doubled-up legume cropping system across three agro-ecologies in central Malawi.  Poster presented at Integrated Systems Research for Sustainable Intensification in Smallholder Agriculture Conference, March 2015.