Growing up in Kenya on a farm, Silvano Ocheya came to America with a passion to help make a change in people’s lives. With a U.S. education, his skills and knowledge in agriculture will help him do just that.
Ocheya is a Texas A&M University doctoral student and has spent his summer in Amarillo harvesting wheat and gathering data for his dissertation project, which he will complete in about 18 months. Ocheya, in addition to the three-year scholar program, was selected this year as one of 14 graduate students worldwide recognized as a “Borlaug next generation delegate,” according to AgriLife Today.
Ocheya is combining drought tolerance and rust resistance from U.S. and Kenyan wheat cultivars to find traits that will work under the Kenyan conditions.
“We just need to do simple things,” Ocheya said. “The U.S. has improved their yields by doing simple things: breeding in resistance and taking it to the farmer. We need to do that in these developing countries–take the technology to the farmer.”