Dr Emmanuel Junior Zuza

Biography 

Emmanuel is passionate about sustainable rural development and smallholder farmers, my objective is to contribute to the Agriculture and Food Security industry by enhancing smallholder crop productivity, food and nutrition security, and incomes. I am committed to promoting gender justice and addressing the challenges posed by climate change and information technology.

Experience

I am a skilled trainer and researcher in climate and environmental sciences, specializing in various crop life cycle assessment chains in Africa. With expertise in managing international development projects, I have successfully designed, developed, and overseen long-term crop value chain programs, particularly tailored for smallholder farmer setups. My experience includes working on projects funded by DFID, USAID, and GIZ, such as the Global Poverty Action Fund Project, Integrated Nutrition in Value Chains, Feed the Future - Peanut and Mycotoxin Innovation Lab, Malawi Improved Seed Systems and Technologies Project/Aflasafe, and MIERA project in Malawi.

Storytelling

As a storyteller, I focus on highlighting the impacts of climate change on crop production, with a special emphasis on smallholders' experiences and their adoption of natural-based solutions for adaptation. My Ph.D. research centered on climate-smart macadamia agroforestry managed by smallholders.

Professional memberships

  • British Ecological Society.
  • European Agroforestry Federation.
  • Italian Society for Climate Sciences.
  • NERC Engaging Environments.
  • British Soil Society.
  • Soil Society of America

Reviewer

  • PLOS One
  • Sage
  • Journal of Agriculture and Food Security
  • Agriculture and Forest Meteorology
  • Ecography

Research interests

Emmanuel’s research focuses on food systems transformations, sustainable agricultural practices, with an emphasis on just transitions and climate suitability modelling.  Looking for PhD students to supervise.

Recent research funding

  • Module leader: Environmental Science in Agriculture
  • Module leader: Environmental Technology and Innovation
  • Module leader: Climate Change and Sustainability
  • Module leader: Computing and Information Technology in Agriculture

Peer Review publications

Oral presentations

  • Grzanka, E., Soper, V., Zuza, E. Jnr. (2022, March). Encouraging students to be green entrepreneurs. Advanced Higher Education Conference, Virtual.
  • Zuza, E. Jnr., Emmott, A., Rawes, W., Araya, Y.N. (2021, December). Climate suitability predictions for the cultivation of macadamia in Malawi. Africa and its ecologies: People and Nature in the age of climate change, GAPSYM14 – International Conference, Ghent, Belgium.
  • Zuza, E. Jnr., Emmott, A., Rawes, W., Araya, Y.N. (2021, December). Why climate change will be bitter for macadamia in Malawi. British Ecological Society Annual Conference, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
  • Zuza, E. Jnr., Bhagwat, Maseyk, K., SA., Emmott, A., Rawes, W., Araya, Y.N. (2021, September). Climate change and macadamia agroforestry in Malawi. Italian Society for Climate Sciences Annual Conference, Virtual.
  • Zuza, E. Jnr., Araya. Y.N. (2020, September). Citizen science for data collection a case of macadamia production in Malawi. CENTA Conference, Virtual.
  • Zuza, E. Jnr., Emmott, A., Woods, Jeremy. (2019, February). Feasibility study of clean energy generation and supply from groundnut shell in Afri - Oil's value chains in Malawi. Agro-Industries, and Clean Energy in Africa Symposium, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
  • Zuza, E. Jnr., Muitia, A., Amane, M.I.V., Brandenburg, R.L., Emmott, A. and Mondjana, A.M. (2016, October). Does harvesting time impact aflatoxin contamination of groundnuts? Peanut Innovation Lab Conference, Lilongwe, Malawi.
  • Zuza, E. Jnr., Muitia, A., Amane, M.I.V., Brandenburg, R.L., Emmott, A. and Mondjana, A.M. (2016, September). Effect of harvesting time and drying methods on groundnut aflatoxin contamination in Northern Mozambique. GLOBALG.A.P. Summit, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Poster presentations

  • Zuza, E. Jnr., Emmott, A., Rawes, W., Araya, Y.N. (2022, September). Climate change and macadamia agroforestry in Malawi. TROPENTAG Annual Conference, Prague, Czech Republic.
  • Zuza, E. Jnr., Bhagwat, Maseyk, K., SA., Emmott, A., Rawes, W., Araya, Y.N. (August, 2022). Agroforestry a key to climate adaptation and 
  • resilience in Malawi. Micro Ecology and Biogeography Conference, Antwerp, Belgium.
  • Zuza, E. Jnr., Bhagwat, Maseyk, K., SA., Emmott, A., Rawes, W., Araya, Y.N. (2021, November). What climate scenarios inform us about macadamia cultivation? A case study of Malawi. Association of Applied Biologists Annual Conference, Birmingham, United Kingdom.
  • Araya, Y.N. Emmott, A., Rawes, W., Zuza, E. Jnr. (2019, December). Engaged Research: Mobile device data collection from Malawian macadamia farmers for agricultural research and distance education in the United Kingdom. British Ecological Society Annual Conference, Belfast, United Kingdom.
  • Zuza, E. Jnr., Bhagwat, Maseyk, K., SA., Emmott, A., Rawes, W., Araya, Y.N. (2019, December). Does growing area and altitude influence macadamia yields in Malawi? British Ecological Society Annual Conference, Belfast, United Kingdom.