Blessing M. Maumbe earned his PhD in Agricultural Economics at Michigan State University in 2001. He has received academic fellowship awards from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Michigan State University’s Thoman Fellowship, and Southern Africa Development Community (SADC)/ Germany Agency for Technical Development (GTZ). Blessing has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in agribusiness management, agribusiness strategy, and global food marketing at various universities in Zimbabwe, South Africa, and the United States over the past two decades. He is currently serving as Professor and Executive Dean for the Faculty of Commerce at Bindura University of Science Education. Prior to that, he was an Associate Professor of Agribusiness at Massey University in New Zealand and an Assistant Professor of Agribusiness Management at West Virginia University for about 3 years. Before joining West Virginia University, he served as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Business Informatics at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, in Cape Town, South Africa and Associate Professor of Agribusiness Management at Eastern Kentucky University for a period of about six years. Blessing has worked extensively in the area of e-agriculture and mobile agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa over the past decade. He has published several papers in international journals and conference proceedings and is an active member of the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA). His current research focuses on the organization and performance of agribusiness value chains and the role of information and communication technologies (ICT) in agriculture and rural development. Blessing has recently edited a new book entitled Technology, Sustainability and Rural Development in Africa and he is the founding Editor-in-Chief of theInternational Journal of Information and Communication Technology Research and Development in Africa (IJICTRDA).Julius Juma Okello is a Lecturer and the Coordinator of Agribusiness Management Program in the Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nairobi, Kenya, and a World Bank consultant. He earned his PhD in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University with specializations in international agricultural development, agricultural marketing, and resource and environmental economics.
His current research focuses on the role of ICT in linking smallholder farmers to high value domestic and international markets, food safety and risk, and sustainable management of natural resources. Some of his publications include "From circle of poison to circle of virtue: Pesticides, export standards and Kenya’s green bean farmers," Journal of Agricultural Economics (2010); “The role of ICT-based market information services in spatial food market integration: The case of Malawi Agricultural Commodity Exchange”, International Journal of ICT Research and Development in Africa (2011)". Dr. Okello is currently coordinating an IDRC funded Africa-wide project on effectiveness of ICT on promoting smallholder farmer commercialization and household food security. He also coordinates a project that is using Participatory Geographical Information System (P-GIS) to promote sustainable management of natural forests. He has in the past worked for various other international organizations including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Oxfam (America), International Livestock Research Institute, and International Food Policy Research Institute as a consultant.