World Potato Congress Inc. Announces New International Advisor

World Potato Congress President, Romain Cools is very pleased to introduce Dr. André Devaux as the newest WPC International Advisor.

Romain Cools:

“André is a man who has illustrated he can act local and think global. During his work as Director for CIP in Latin America his idea to launch a global campaign with the slogan ‘imagine a world without potatoes’ has been put into action.”

Dr. Devaux has a PhD in Agriculture Science from the Université Catholique Louvain (UCL), Belgium, and has more than 35 years of professional experience in the global South. He has extensive and proven expertise in managing multidisciplinary teams to strengthen agriculture innovation in Latin America, Africa and Asia, with special emphasis on production and utilization of the potato for enhancing food security, in the context of agricultural innovation systems and inclusive value chain development.

Dr. Devaux has published more than 50 articles, books and reports. His experience is mainly with the International Potato Center (CIP) however he has also working experience with FAO and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

At the beginning of his career, Dr. Devaux worked on improving potato production systems collaborating with national partners in Peru, Rwanda, Pakistan and Bolivia.

He then led CIP’s research and development work on inclusive value chain development, creating and coordinating the Papa Andina program in the early 2000. Through this program, CIP developed the Participatory Market Chain Approach (PMCA), a methodology to engage smallholder farmers, market agents, researchers, and other service providers in a collective process to promote innovation and exploit potential business opportunities taking advantage of potato biodiversity.

This approach, developed and first applied in the Andes, to increase the competitiveness of potato value chains and participation of small holders, has been recognized worldwide and has won several international awards such as the World Challenge Award 2007 (https://www.theworldchallenge.co.uk/potato-goldmine.html). Through South-South collective learning, the approach has been introduced and enhanced by local organizations focusing on different value chains in different parts of Africa and Asia.

With IFPRI, coordination and edition of an inter-institutional publication on “Innovation for Inclusive Value-Chain Development”. This book synthesizes lessons from agricultural innovation and value chain development drawing on cases involving recent work associated with CGIAR and its partners in Africa, Asia, and Latin America (https://www.ifpri.org/publication/innovation-inclusive-value-chain-deve…).

More recently, Dr. Devaux has coordinated CIP’s strategic program on Resilient Food Systems focusing on climate smart root and tuber based agri-food systems with a gender perspective. Since 2012, he has assumed the position of CIP’s Latin American Regional Program Director coordinating project implementation in this region and promoting partnership.

WPC Director, Dr. Peter VanderZaag stated:

“André is a uniquely creative scientist, who has the gift of developing strategies for strengthening the potato value chain and simultaneously mobilizing resources and people to make it happen. This was particularly evident as he led the CIP work in the Andean region of South America, the home of the potato! We are most fortunate to have André join our team.”

Welcome André to the World Potato Congress team!