Kayode Sanni
Kayode Abiola Sanni has 30 years of progressive experience in agricultural research, seed systems, and technology deployment, Kayode is the Rice Project Manager and data management team leader at AATF. He leads the rice program, translating strategic goals into actionable plans, prioritizing tasks, and ensuring seamless integration of technical, data, legal, communication, regulatory, gender, nutrition and product deployment in rice projects. Kayode is a pathfinder in the development, promotion and commercialization of hybrid rice in Africa, aiming to enhance food security through the Alliance for Hybrid Rice in Africa (AHyRA), which he initiated. He also represents AATF on the steering committee of the Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD). Previously, Kayode worked at the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice), where he served as a molecular biologist and later headed the Genetic Resources Unit and the coordinator of the International Network for Genetic Evaluation of Rice in Africa (INGER-Africa), managing rice genetic resources for crop improvement. He played a pivotal role in the release of over 30 rice varieties across Africa and represented AfricaRice at the Inter-Center Working Group on Genetic Resources (ICWG-GR) and International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources. His earlier work at IITA focused on molecular profiling of IITA mandate crops including cassava, yam and cowpea. Kayode holds a PhD in plant breeding and has extensive expertise in plant breeding, genetic resources management, seed systems, intellectual property rights, and the commercialization of agricultural technologies. With more than 50 publications, including scientific journals, books, and conference papers.