Ms. Mercy Namara
Crop Scientist,
Makerere University Centre for Soybean Improvement and Development, Department of Agricultural Production, School of Agricultural Sciences, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Ms. Namara has an MSc. In Plant Breeding and Seed Systems from Makerere University, and BSc. In Agriculture, from Makerere University. She currently teaches undergraduate students in Seed Science and Technology, and Agronomy.
She has over 12 years of research experience in Seed science and Technology, Agronomy and plant breeding, and her aspiration as an agriculture researcher is to ensure that farmers are able to access good quality seed of improved crop varieties and other technologies developed through research. Ms. Namara has been working with the Makerere University Centre for Soybean Improvement and Development (MAKCSID) for the last 12 years since she finished her undergraduate course, before joining Makerere University as an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Production.
For the past 12 years, she has been involved in development of improved, high yielding soybean varieties with resistance to soybean rust and other insect pests like the groundnut leaf miners and bruchids. She is also passionate about knowledge dissemination in quality seed production and agronomy to different farming communities among farmers organised in groups and Local seed businesses through trainings and exhibitions to ensure improved crop productivity. She has been able to reach out to more than 10,000 farmers across different regions in Uganda. Over the last 12 years, she has engaged in training farmers on soybean Agronomy and seed systems in the different regions in Uganda. In addition, I have participated in knowledge dissemitaion through exhibitions like the world food day and the Annual National Jinja show.