President – APBA

Julia Sibiya is an Associate Professor in Plant Breeding and the current Dean and Head of School (Acting) of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and co-Director for the Centre for Transformative Agricultural and Food Systems, UKZN.

She has over 30 years’ experience in teaching, research, curriculum development and community engagement in Plant Breeding and Plant Pathology, working on disease resistance, drought tolerance and nutritional quality particularly in maize, sorghum and underutilized (orphan) crops.

She is the current President of the African Plant Breeders Association and also serves on the Board of Directors for DivSeek International Network Inc. Julia has coordinated many projects including the AGRA-funded Improved MSc in Cultivar Development for Africa, which focused on training industry-ready, middle level, graduates from Africa and also coordinated the EU-funded Mobreed (Mobility for Breeders in Africa) under the Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme focusing on enhancing training and research mobility for underutilized (orphan) crops breeding in Africa.

She currently collaborates with UC Davis on a USDA/NIFA sorghum project on enhancing nutritional quality of grain sorghum and improving productivity under drought conditions and is part of the Vision for Adapted Crops & Soils (VACS), an initiative by the United States Department of State, FAO and AU on opportunity crops that are climate resilient and nutritious.

To date she has raised over for research and training and co-authored over 130 articles in international, peer- reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and contributed to 5 book chapters. She is a C1 NRF-rated Scientist, who has supervised to completion 80 postgraduate students (MSc and PhD) from various countries in Africa, while current supervision includes 11 PhDs and 2 MSc students.