Prof. Joseph Bigirimana
President, ASARECA General Assembly
Prof. Joseph Bigirimana served as the ASARECA General Assembly President from 2013 to May 2023, when he handed over to Mr. Amanuel Negassi. During his tenure as the President, he over-saw ASARECA undertake an elaborate reform and re-visioning process that led to the creation of the Council of Patron Ministers and a return of all Directors General of the NARIs to the ASARECA Board of Directors. Prof. Bigirimana is the Country Representative of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Burundi. He coordinates and leads all IRRI’s research and capacity building in Burundi. This includes developing Rice varieties adapted to different rice ecologies in Africa, initiating and managing numerous field sites for testing locally adapted potential new rice varieties, coordinating farmer field schools and liaison with the government of Burundi to identify further areas of collaboration. Joseph also teaches plant pathology at the University of Burundi. His research interests are crop and environmental sciences.