Devra I. Jarvis

Title: Principal Scientist Agrobiodiversity and Ecosystem Services

Duty post: Bioversity International HQ, Rome, Italy

Devra I. Jarvis, an American national, joined Bioversity International in 1996. Devra’s career began in China researching the last 10,000 years of vegetation and climate change in south-western China through fossil and modern pollen records.  In 1991 she joined the UN World Food Programme (WFP) where she worked in development and relief food aid in China, Uganda and Rome.  In 1996, Devra returned to her biological research background to lead Bioversity International’s new programme on in situ conservation of cultivated and wild crop diversity.

Today, 15 years later, Devra is the principal scientist of the Agrobiodiversity and Ecosystem Services group. Her work here has made her an outstanding scientific leader for the cross-disciplinary scientific work needed to advance Bioversity International’s understanding of the assessment, management, use and value of crop biodiversity in the production systems of smallholder farmers. She provides scientific guidance to research programmes and scientists not only at Bioversity International but also numerous international foundations, universities and other research centres.

Credentials:

BA, Cultural Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley
MSc, Forest Research Management, University of Washington
PhD, Botany, Quaternary Palynology, University of Washington
Adjunct Faculty, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Washington State University
Adjunct Professor, Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire (IAV) Hassan II University, Morocco
Science Council Member, Agropolis Foundation, France

Languages:

Mother tongue English, fluent in Chinese, with the ability to communicate in Italian and French

Recent publications:

M. Pautasso, G. Aistara, D. I. Jarvis, A. Barnaud, S. Caillon, et al. 2012. ‘Seed exchange networks for agrobiodiversity conservation. A review’.  Agronomy for Sustainable Development. INRA and Springer-Verlag, France. [Read more] 

J. W. Mulumba, R. Nankya, J. Adokorach, D. I. Jarvis et al. 2012. ‘A risk-minimizing argument for traditional crop varietal diversity use to reduce pest and disease damage in agricultural ecosystems in Uganda’. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. Volume 157. Elsevier B. V. pp. 70–86. [Read more]

D. I. Jarvis, T. Hodgkin, B. R. Sthapit, C. Fadda, I. Lopez-Noriega. 2011. ‘An heuristic framework for identifying multiple ways of supporting the conservation and use of traditional crop varieties within the agricultural production system’. Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences. Special Issue: Towards a More Sustainable Agriculture. Volume 30, Issue 1–2. Taylor&Francis Online. [Read more]

Jarvis DI, Padoch C, and Cooper HD, editors. 2007. Managing Biodiversity in Agricultural Ecosystems. Colombia University Press, New York, United States. [Read more] in English (2007), Chinese  (2010), Russian (2010), Arabic (2011), Spanish (2012) and French (2012)

D. I. Jarvis, A. H. D. Brown, P. H. Cuong, L. Collado-Panduro, et al. 2008. ‘A global perspective of the richness and evenness of traditional crop-variety diversity maintained by farming communities’. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Volume 105 no. 14. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. [Read more] 

D. I. Jarvis, R. Hajjar, B. Gemmill-Herren. 2007. ‘The utility of crop genetic diversity in maintaining ecosystem services’. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. Volume 123. Elsevier B. V. pp. 261–270. [Read more]