Dr Ahmed Warsame joins Crop Science Centre as Research Fellow

This September, Dr Ahmed Warsame will join the Crop Science Centre as a research fellow. Ahmed’s work aims to make legumes more versatile and valuable, both nutritionally and economically, by enhancing desirable traits and reducing those that are less favourable, with the explicit intent of improving livelihoods of small-holder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. His research focuses on improving nutritional content, sensory appeal, and culinary qualities while minimising antinutrients and other defects. This will be achieved by exploring the genetic basis of these traits.

Ahmed explains, “Legumes are critical for human nutrition and play a significant role in crop rotation and the sustainability of crop production systems. By developing cultivars with better quality and agronomic performance, farmers will be able to sell their surplus produce for various end-uses. This, in turn, fosters income generation, which is vital not only for reinvesting in farm inputs but also for improving access to essential services like education and healthcare. Ultimately, this will help strengthen food security and promote equity in global agriculture by supporting both the economic stability of low-income farming communities and the resilience of food production systems.”

Ahmed’s journey to this role has been marked by determination and academic excellence. He grew up in Somalia during the civil war in the 1990s and mid-2000s, before completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Gadarif in Sudan and a master’s degree at the University of Nairobi in Kenya. After three years of working in Somalia, he received a scholarship from the Islamic Development Bank to pursue a PhD in crop science at the University of Reading. This was followed by a three-year postdoctoral research position at the John Innes Centre, where he worked on the genetic enhancement of quality traits in peas, funded by the UK’s Department of Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Ahmed was drawn to this field by the challenge of addressing a significant gap in plant breeding. He explains, “Traditionally, breeding programmes have prioritised agronomic performance traits like yield and disease resistance, while often overlooking quality traits that directly impact both farmers and consumers. This lack of focus on quality traits has become a major barrier to the adoption of new legume cultivars, especially in low-income regions where farmers are not only the main producers but also the primary consumers of these crops. In these communities, improving both agronomic and quality traits simultaneously is essential for encouraging the uptake of new varieties and enhancing food security and climate resilience.”

However, Ahmed acknowledges that this field is not without its challenges. “A significant challenge in this field is the complex genetic architecture of these traits. In most cases, little is known about them, especially in under-researched indigenous legumes cultivated by smallholder farmers. By exploring the genetic basis of these desirable and undesirable traits, my research will provide crucial insights that can be leveraged to develop agronomically superior cultivars. This work not only seeks to improve crop quality and consumer acceptance but also supports food security and sustainability for smallholder farming communities.”

He also highlights the importance of efficiency in research, noting, “By developing higher throughput versions of the standard assay protocols, I aim to make this important area of research more efficient, benefiting both my work and the broader scientific community.”

Ahmed describes joining the Crop Science Centre as “a dream come true for me. Since I first heard about its establishment during the early years of my PhD, I have been eager to be a part of it. I am particularly looking forward to collaborating with colleagues at the Crop Science Centre and the Plant Science Department, as well as forging new partnerships with scientists across sub-Saharan Africa. I believe that the unique expertise and collaborative atmosphere at the Centre will be instrumental in achieving impactful outcomes in global food security.”

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