CGIAR Research Program Directors

Dave Watson grew up on small family-farm in northeast England and has farmed for over 30 years.
In the last 10 years, Dave has managed research-for-development partnerships in sub-Saharan Africa; first as program leader for innovative partnerships in the Innovation Systems Programme of the International Livestock Research Institute and, more recently, as director for project development and management at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). His major achievements include the adoption of innovation systems and value chain approaches in IITA. He aims to ensure that agricultural research is demand-driven and leads to significant development outcomes and impact.
Dave has a BSc in agricultural botany from the University of Reading, UK, and an MSc and a PhD in food system development from the University of Hull, UK. Throughout the 1990s, he taught courses on sustainable agriculture and the environment at the University of Hull.