Alfonce Leonard Mutibha (Tanzania)

Alfonce Mutibha

Research project title:  Understanding the bioecology of edible grasshoppers in East Africa for the development of improved rearing and harvesting technique.

Alfonce Leonard Mutibha is an ARPPIS PhD fellow supervised by Dr(s) Sevgan Subramanian, Sundey Ekesi, Komi Fiaboe & Fathiya Khamis from icipe and Prof. Samuel Kyamanywa and Dr. James Peter Egonyu from Makerere University. Alfonce research interest include the Bioecology of edible grasshoppers. His currently doing morphological and molecular identification of edible grasshoppers’ species in Kenya and Uganda, identification of host plants of edible grasshoppers through molecular analysis of their gut content, isolation and identification of entomopathogens of edible grasshoppers, development of rearing protocols of edible grasshoppers and development of improved wild harvesting technique of edible grasshoppers funded by EntoNutri project and DAAD.

Bio:  Alfonce holds a Bachelor degree in Agriculture general and MSc. Crop Science from Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Morogoro, Tanzania. He is experienced in Insect Pest Management (IPM) in rice and cotton crops. He has authored one manuscripts in stem borers of rice crop and has presented in various scientific meetings nationally and internationally.