Manhattan, Kansas, USA
May 31, 2011
Few people could have guessed the path that Rachel Opole’s life would take.
The Kansas State University doctoral student was a city girl who nonetheless, developed an interest in livestock and crop production. Those interests, largely influenced by her parents, inspired her desire to improve crops grown to feed people. To enhance her work in that area, Opole has been named the recipient of the Norman E. Borlaug Leadership Enhancement in Agriculture Program (LEAP) fellowship.
Opole spent most of her formative years in Nairobi, Kenya’s bustling capital with a population of about 3 million people. Even against that urban backdrop, her interest in agriculture grew.
“I grew up on a farm in the outskirts of Nairobi,” she said. Her father worked in the Veterinary Research Laboratories, which gave her an interest in and understanding of livestock production. But it was her mother’s interest in growing crops at the farm that influenced her even more. “Crops were my mom’s domain. So I developed an interest in crop production at a very early age.”
Her research efforts have mostly focused on studying how finger millet, a plant widely used as a cereal crop in arid areas of Africa and Asia, adapts to environmental stresses such as high temperatures and drought.
“This research is very useful to the people in Africa. Finger millet is a subsistence crop. It grows well in Africa, but it’s been neglected,” she added, noting that research dollars have largely gone to other crops such as corn and wheat in recent years.
“Our faculty in the College of Agriculture is constantly seeking to forge new relevant international research partnerships. K-State participation in the Borlaug program offers a unique opportunity for a preliminary exchange between prospective partners. It is not a one-time training exercise, but our past experience with hosting Borlaug Fellows shows that it leads to more sustainable and longer term collaboration effort,” said Nina Lilja, director of International Agricultural Programs in K-State’s College of Agriculture.
Opole said that though Kenya produces only a fraction of what is produced in Kansas, Kenyan farmers work hard just like Kansas farmers do, to produce crops within their limits.
“We don’t have winter in Kenya, but we experience weather similar to (Kansas) spring and summer,” she said of other similarities.
As part of the one-year Borlaug fellowship, Opole will travel to Kenya in June to study for three months, then to India in September for another three months. In Kenya, she will replicate the research she’s done in Kansas and, in India she will analyze different types of finger millet. She will return to her work in Kansas for the final six months of the fellowship.
“The idea is to evaluate the different varieties and find those that have the most resistance to environmental stresses,” said the 50-year-old Opole, who has been working toward her doctorate at K-State since 2008.
The city-girl-turned-agronomy-researcher aspect of Rachel Opole’s story is not the only surprising twist. She’s considered a quiet, but determined woman in K-State’s agronomy department, having earned a bachelor’s degree, then entering the workforce, then earning a master’s degree, and again returning to work, before coming to Kansas to pursue her doctorate – all while raising five children with her husband, Philip Oduor. The children are currently in Kenya with their father.
Opole acknowledges that being away from her family and adjusting to the Kansas weather and differences in the learning environment in the United States compared with Kenya have posed challenges in adjusting to her life and work here. But she also cited the wealth of knowledge that comes from both her research and that of her colleagues as rewards for the sacrifices she and her family have made to bring her to this point in her career.
“Faculty and staff (at K-State) are always available and ready to help. I get a lot of support from colleagues across the (agronomy) department and from where I earned my previous degrees,” she said. Opole earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Eastern Africa in Baraton, Kenya, and a master’s degree from Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya.
Once she’s completed her work in the Borlaug fellowship and her doctoral degree in agronomy at K-State, Opole plans to return to Kenya to work toward improving food production.
“I’m happy to be here. It’s been a lifelong dream to pursue these studies,” she said, adding that her parents have visited her in Manhattan and seen where their influence has taken their daughter. For her father, the recent trip to Manhattan also meant revisiting a place he once lived. He spent a year training at K-State 50 years ago.
Opole also credits her K-State adviser, Vara Prasad, who is an associate professor of agronomy, for the success she’s had to date, and to K-State agronomy department faculty members for the opportunity to study with them.
Opole said she is thankful to the International Sorghum and Millet Research Support Program (INTSORMIL) for sponsoring her studies, Dr. Upadhyaya at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India for mentorship, and to the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) for supporting her studies. She is grateful to the Norman Borlaug LEAP for awarding her the fellowship to pursue her passion of production agriculture.
“Lastly, but not least, I appreciate my family for their support as I pursue my studies,” Opole said.
Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture uses agricultural science to feed the world’s hungry
The Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture carries on the work of Dr. Norman Borlaug, an agricultural scientist who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.
An agricultural scientist, Borlaug's work in food production and hunger alleviation was recognized through the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 since, as the Laureate pointed out, there is no Nobel Prize for food and agriculture.
In his introduction (at the Nobel Ceremony), Borlaug said he often speculated that if Alfred Nobel had written his will to establish the various prizes and endowed them 50 years earlier, the first prize established would have been for food and agriculture. However, by the time Nobel wrote his will in 1895, there was no serious food production problem haunting Europe like the widespread potato famine in 1845-51, that took the lives of untold millions.
Borlaug died in 2009 at the age of 95, but his work is carried on by the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture, based at Texas A&M University. The institute supports and implements agricultural development programs around the world, and offers short-term training programs for professionals in academe as well as the private and public sectors.
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