Soil Health
Healthy soils are the foundation of productive, resilient agriculture.
Meet the Soil Health Technical Panel
The Soil Health Technical Panel is made up of subject matter experts, including academics who conduct research related to the topic, and implementers—multilateral development banks, non-governmental organizations, and foundations—who work to promote and fund the innovation in the field.
Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Dr. Hope Michelson is a Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on smallholder farmers in low-income countries and the relationships among agriculture, natural resources, markets, and household well-being. She has a particular interest in poverty dynamics and food security across multiple spatial scales. Her research combines household and firm panel data, randomized controlled trials, experimental methods, and laboratory-based measures of soil and fertilizer quality. Her current projects are concentrated primarily in East and Southern Africa, and she has also conducted research in Mexico, Nicaragua, and China. Hope received a PhD in Applied Economics from Cornell University.
Executive Director and Head of Mission, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA)
Dr. Aggrey Agumya is Executive Director and Head of Mission of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), the continental organization responsible for coordinating and advocating for agricultural research for development in Africa. He has been with FARA since 2006 and has held a number of senior leadership roles, including Director for Research and Innovation and Director for Stakeholder Engagement and Communication. Prior to joining FARA, Aggrey worked at the World Agroforestry Centre, where he used geographic information systems to identify priority areas for scaling agroforestry technologies in Southern Africa. Through his work at FARA and World Agroforestry, he has developed extensive experience across Africa’s agricultural research and innovation landscape. He holds a PhD in Geo-Information Sciences from the University of Melbourne, an MSc in GIS from ITC in the Netherlands, and a BSc in Surveying and Photogrammetry from the University of Nairobi.
Senior Program Officer, Gates Foundation
Dr. Christian Witt is Senior Program Officer in the Agricultural Development team at the Gates Foundation. He provides strategic direction on innovation in soil health and agronomy as part of the Agricultural Delivery Systems Team aimed at increasing productivity and income of small-scale producers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Prior to joining the foundation in 2010, he was a scientist and project manager in international agricultural research with 17+ years of experience in plant nutrition and soil nutrient management in the tropics. Christian spent most of his career working in Asia. He was Director of the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) Southeast Asia based in Singapore and Malaysia from 2004 to 2009 after a long career at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines where he started his PhD research. Christian holds a PhD in Biology from Justus-von-Liebig University, Germany.
Programme Lead, Sustainable Land Use, Environmental Sciences Group, Wageningen University & Research
Dr. Esther Ronner leads the Sustainable Land Use Programme at the Environmental Sciences Group of Wageningen University & Research. Her work focuses on sustainable land use, agricultural innovation, rural livelihoods, and the interactions between environmental, social and economic change. She has extensive experience working on smallholder farming systems across sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on the co-design, analysis and delivery of locally-relevant options for sustainable intensification of agriculture. Esther has led and contributed to research-for-development projects, particularly in Uganda, including work on soil health, sustainable agricultural production, landscape approaches, and multi-stakeholder processes. She holds a PhD from Wageningen University, where her research focused on co-designing baskets of options for biological nitrogen fixation and grain-legume production with smallholder farmers in Africa.
Researcher, Embrapa
Dr. Iêda de Carvalho Mendes is a researcher at Embrapa Cerrados, where she has worked since 1989. A soil microbiologist, her research focuses on biological nitrogen fixation, microbial ecology, and biological indicators of soil health. She and her team developed Soil Bioanalysis (SoilBio), an approach that incorporates measurements of soil enzyme activity into routine soil testing to help assess the biological health of agricultural soils. Her work has helped translate advances in soil microbiology into practical tools for farmers and laboratories and has contributed to broader efforts to improve the productivity and sustainability of tropical agriculture. Iêda holds a degree in Agronomy from the University of Brasília and a PhD in Soil Science from Oregon State University.
Professor, Department of Plant Production in the Tropics and Subtropics, University of Hohenheim
Dr. João Vasco Silva is a Professor and Head of the Department of Plant Production in the Tropics and Subtropics at the University of Hohenheim. His research combines agronomy and data science to understand yield constraints, improve soil fertility management, and identify where agricultural interventions can have the greatest impact, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. His work spans sustainable intensification, nutrient use efficiency, soil acidity management, and farming systems research, with a strong focus on translating agronomic evidence into better investment and management decisions. Prior to joining the University of Hohenheim, João worked at Wageningen University and CIMMYT, where he was an Agronomy-at-Scale Data Scientist. He holds MSc and PhD degrees in Plant Sciences from Wageningen University.
Principal Scientist, CIMMYT
Dr. Jordan Chamberlin is an Agricultural Economist at CIMMYT whose research focuses on smallholder farming systems, agricultural productivity, and rural transformation in sub-Saharan Africa. His work combines economic and spatial analysis to understand how differences in land, soils, markets, and access to agricultural inputs shape farmer productivity and investment decisions. He has conducted extensive research on soil fertility and fertilizer use, including the economics of addressing soil acidity, site-specific agronomic recommendations, and how soil conditions affect returns to fertilizer. Jordan holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University and an MA in Geography from Arizona State University.
Chief Scientist, iSDA
Dr. Keith Shepherd is Chief Scientist at Innovative Solutions for Decision Agriculture (iSDA), with over 40 years of experience in agricultural research and development. He spent 31 years with World Agroforestry (ICRAF) in Nairobi, where he led research on sustainable land and soil management, and has pioneered global developments in soil-plant spectroscopy and digital agriculture. Prior to joining ICRAF, Keith worked on agronomic research and recommendations in Sudan, the Philippines, Syria, and Swaziland. In 2025, he received the IFA Norman Borlaug Plant Nutrition Award in recognition of his pioneering work in soil diagnostics and digital agriculture. Keith holds a BSc in Soil Science and a PhD in Agricultural Botany from the University of Reading and is an Honorary Scientist at Rothamsted Research in the UK.
Program Director, International Fertilizer Development Center
Dr. Latha Nagarajan is a Program Director at the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), where she has worked since 2011. She previously served as Director of IFDC’s SOILS Consortium, which focused on developing and scaling site-specific approaches to soil fertility and plant nutrition. Her research focuses on agricultural technology adoption, input markets, program and policy evaluation, and the design of interventions to improve agricultural productivity and farmer livelihoods. She has also worked extensively on seed systems and markets in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining IFDC, Latha held research positions at Rutgers University, the International Food Policy Research Institute, the University of Minnesota, and the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. She holds a PhD in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota.
Global Research Lead, ICRAF
Dr. Leigh Ann Winowiecki is the Global Research Lead for Soil and Land Health at Landscape Alliance (ICRAF) in Nairobi. A soil scientist with extensive experience across sub-Saharan Africa and the tropics, she leads research on soil health, land degradation, restoration, and ecosystem resilience. Since 2009, she has co-developed and led the Land Degradation Surveillance Framework (LDSF), now implemented in more than 45 countries and contributing to one of the largest georeferenced datasets on soil, vegetation, and ecosystem health across the tropics. She also leads work on scaling nature-based solutions, monitoring restoration outcomes, and expanding soil diagnostics through advanced spectroscopy, biological indicators, microbiome analysis, and other emerging methods. Dr. Winowiecki is a co-founder of the Coalition of Action for Soil Health (CA4SH), a global partnership of more than 350 organizations and individuals, and has helped elevate soil health in international policy and investment discussions. She serves on the Scientific and Monitoring Task Forces of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, is part of the Regen10 Expert Network, and has held governance and advisory roles with organizations including IFDC, the Varda Foundation, and Welthungerhilfe. She holds a PhD in Soil Science and Tropical Agroforestry from the University of Idaho and CATIE in Costa Rica.
Senior Economist, Development Data Group, World Bank
Sydney Gourlay is a Senior Economist for the Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS), the World Bank’s flagship household survey program housed at the Development Data Group. Her primary area of research is methodological validation with a particular focus on agriculture, including land area measurement, land tenure, and soil health. She also co-leads the Methods and Tools Component of the 50×2030 Initiative. Sydney holds an an MA and PhD in Economics from American University in Washington, DC.