9 September 2013 – CABI is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Babar Bajwa as Regional Director, Central and West Asia. Dr Bajwa, an award winning agricultural researcher, joined CABI today and is based in our office in Pakistan. He brings with him a wealth of expertise in agribusiness, essential for a region where small-scale farming is widespread, employing a large percentage of the population and contributing heavily towards GDP.
CABI’s Centre in Central and West Asia works to help farmers in the region improve the quality of crops, increasing yields and accessing markets in a sustainable, environmentally sensitive way. Farmer involvement and participation, as well as access to knowledge, are key to the Centre’s work, as our partnership on the provision of skills for farms’ training with the University of Arid Agriculture shows. Dr Bajwa, with a PhD in post-harvest technology, has an excellent academic background in agricultural science. As an agribusiness specialist, he has experience in research and management, holding positions in the private sector, the federal and provincial governments of Pakistan, and with various donor organisations. In 2009, he was awarded the Sir John Dillon Fellowship, Asia Pacific Outstanding Agriculture Researcher Award sponsored by ACIAR.
Speaking about his strategic vision for the coming year, Dr Bajwa said, “CABI’s Centre in Central and West Asia has a reputation for providing practical solutions to the major problems pertaining to agricultural production and the environment by reaching out to a large number of farmers. The centre will continue to deliver quality services to its stakeholders through sustainable partnerships. These partnerships will focus on knowledge management and its applications, improving food security in climate change, managing invasive species, reducing crop losses, increasing profitability and improving farmer to market linkages.”