Professor Eugénie Kayitesi’s career was shaped by personal experiences with food insecurity. Born into a family fleeing Uganda’s civil war, she spent her early years in refugee camps where hunger and malnutrition were devastating realities. Today, as an Associate Professor at the University of Pretoria, Kayitesi’s research revolves around enhancing the nutritional value of traditional African crops through techniques such as combining crops and fermentation. Kayitesi intends to expand her project throughout Africa and worldwide, adapting ingredients to locally grown crops. Believing in the power of open access publishing, Kayitesi wants to help communities become self-reliant, as she sees sustainable food solutions as key to feeding the future with a growing population.
