Acheampong Atta-Boateng

DPhil Geography and the Environment 
2018

Cocoa is a vital resource in the confectionery and cosmetic industries. Unlike most commodity crops, it is cultivated by millions of small smallholder farmers worldwide. They convert complex landscapes into farmlands to maximize their meagre profits, implicating biodiversity and conservation efforts. Meanwhile only less than 1% of the year-round reproductive output of cacao results in harvestable pod yields. To close this yield gap, my work seeks to understand yield relations to physiological capacity and pollination ecology, and how the novel n-hB technique can optimize yields.

I am the Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Agrofides Inc, a Fintech and Agtech firm based in Massachusetts. Prior to Oxford, I served as the Research Director at the Urban Ecology and Design Lab, Yale University, also where I received my graduate and postgraduate training in Forest Science, and Mechanical Engineering/ Material Science, respectively.

I have been an organist but now perform piano works of the Baroque-Classical period and Classical-Jazz improvisations. I do cross country skiing, soccer, table tennis, squash, running and I’m a novice in windsurfing. I’m obsessed with nature.

For the 2021-22 academic year, I will be taking on the role of GCR president for the GCR Committee.