Mawufe Komi AGBODZAVU (Ph.D)

Dr. Mawufe Agbodzavu is the lead for the BBEST project. He is an entomologist and an IPM specialist who joined IITA-DRC as a Research and Adaptation Team Leader on the USAID Fall armyworm-funded project. Before joining the project, Mawufe was in 2019 a postdoctoral consultant at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in the Technology Transfer Unit, involved in repackaging scientific findings into farmer-friendly training materials on IPM and Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). From 2006 to 2014, he was a researcher and the head of the entomology laboratory at the Togolese National Agricultural Research Institute (ITRA), where he led IPM programs on cocoa and fruits in the forest agroecological zone. Mawufe, since January 2023, is coordinating the implementation of the BBEST project in the DRC, where he leads day-to-day supervision of the project activities, mainly the design and establishment of the black solider fly colonies in the project target areas, training of stakeholders, and participation in the dissemination of the BSF technologies, supervising research of BSF, contribution to policies dialogue to create a suitable environment for the adoption of the BSF-based bio-circular economy in DRC, and in the other implementing countries.