Tania Sanchez Santana graduated as a Doctor of veterinary medicine in 1997 from the Havana Agricultural University and also holds a Masters degree in Grass and Forage Science from the University of Matanzas in Cuba.  She currently works at Indio Hatuey Research Station where she is currently finishing her PhD on ruminant nutrition.  Tania received her grant of £2,100 to allow her to receive training at the Macaulay Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland.  During her 3 months at the Macaulay she will be working on both in vitro gas and natural plant marker techniques.

Nongasida Yameogo received his grant of £3,000 to allow him to carry out research on the use of medicinal plants by poultry farmers in Burkina Faso to treat poultry disease. The grant will be use to take part in a short training course on applied ethnopharmacology at the University of Metz in France www.ethnopharmacologia.org  and also for lab work at the inter state School of Veterinary Medicine of Dakar in Senegal.

Damian  Ndubuisi Njoku graduated as an Agronomist in 1999 from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Nigeria. He is currently preparing for his PhD programme in crop physiology at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria. Damian received his grant of £3,000 to support him obtain a three months training  at Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, South Africa (http://www.fabi.up.ac.za/). He will be trained on advanced molecular tools on crop drought tolerance.

Nelson Abila received his grant of £2,891 to allow him to attend a course on Practical General Equilibrium Modeling with the General Algebraic Modelling System organized by the Ecomod Modeling School, Brussels, Belgium (www.ecomod.net).  Nelson is a graduate student of Agricultural Economics at the University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. The university (http://www.unaab.edu.ng/) is one of the three universities of agriculture in Nigeria with the mandate to promote sustainable agricultural production through research and training.