Invited to the United States under the auspices of the State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), the five agricultural researchers came to UF as part of this premier professional exchange program.
- Dr. Beelal Ali Abdelhameed ALI, Chief Assistant, Climate Change Information Center
- Dr. Dina Atwa Hussein Ahmed ATWA, Researcher
- Mr. Ahmed Hamed Said Hussein ELKENAWY, Researcher, ARC
- Ms. Walaa Nabil Ahmed IBRAHIM, Member of the Technical Bureau, Climate Change Information Center
- Mr. Alaa Abdelraouf Mohamed KHALIL, Supervisor, Unit of Early Warning System, Climate Change Information Center
The Department of State has outlined the following specific objectives for the project:
• Examine U.S. policies and programs related to agricultural resilience and risk management systems in response to climate change, spikes in input costs, or supply chain disruptions.
• Introduce U.S. best practices and advance agricultural modeling methods, modern farming technology and technics that supports scientists, government, and farmers.
• Provide a clear understanding of the coordination and alignment between different agricultural stakeholders to ensure U.S. agricultural competitiveness, proactiveness and innovation.
• Assess how federal, state, regional and local programs for agricultural research, inspection, resource conservation, and trade promotion support the goal of food security.
Through short-term visits to the United States, current and emerging foreign leaders in a variety of fields experience this country firsthand and cultivate lasting relationships with their American counterparts. Professional meetings reflect the participants’ professional interests and support the foreign policy goals of the United States.
During their visit, they met with Dr. Gerrit Hoogenboom to learn all about UF's DSSAT program - Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT), a crop modeling system that is being used world-wide by many scientists and others interested in systems analysis and decision support.
They also met with Damian Adams, Professor and Associate Dean for Research of the University of Florida/IFAS, Andy Ogram who represented the Global Food System Institute and Dr. Michael Kung, The University of Florida International Center’s Office for Global Research Engagement (OGRE) which supports faculty in their international research, teaching and community engagement.