BY SANDRA FRÖBE-KALTENBACH AND CYNTHIA KAZEMBE
Second of a two-part series on IFPRI Malawi’s Bunda Grant Scheme (BGS) mentorship program. Funded by USAID, the program offers selected master’s students from the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) technical support on their thesis research and a forum to present and receive practical feedback on their research. Read the first post here.
Christopher Chikowi, from the 2019/2020 cohort, is 27 and from Ulongwe, Balaka district, the eldest of four children. After obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from LUANAR in 2015, he decided to pursue a Master of Science degree in Agricultural and Applied Economics. Christopher applied to the BGS program after hearing about it from previous LUANAR scholars, who highlighted the significance of the financial and technical support offered by IFPRI to develop a proposal, working paper, and manuscript. He was one of nine students seeking entry into the BGS program. Four students were selected and two published their papers in IFPRI Malawi’s working paper series.
Photo credit: Johannes Kaltenbach/Welthungerhilfe
