Stefano Padulosi

Title: Senior Scientist, Research Theme Leader, Marketing Diversity

Duty post: Bioversity International HQ, Rome, Italy

Dr. Stefano Padulosi started his career as a plant collector in 1986 at the Germplasm Institute  [1] (National Research Council) of Bari, Italy. From 1987 to 1993 worked as a plant explorer and taxonomist at the gene bank of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA  [2]) in Ibadan, Nigeria. In Africa he carried out numerous expeditions to collect and study food crops, including cowpea and its wild relatives which were the focus of his PhD research thesis. In 1993 he joined IBPGR/FAO to develop and implement a project on underutilized crops of the Mediterranean region.

From 1998 until 2006 he worked at our Syria office to coordinate Bioversity’s activities in Central & West Asia and North Africa Region. While based in the Middle East he continued his efforts to promote neglected and underutilized species (NUS  [3]), contributing to develop Bioversity’s first strategy for the promotion of these species and launching the first UN Global Project dedicated on them. He is currently coordinating an international IFAD-funded Project in Bolivia, Nepal and India which is testing out novel methods for the participatory documentation of agrobiodiversity, including a Red List  [4] monitoring system dedicated to cultivated species.

Credentials:

Biological Sciences, University of Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium (1993)
MSc (equivalent), Laurea in Scienze Agrarie, University of Naples, Italy (1986)

Languages:

Fluent in Italian and English, can communicate in Spanish and French

Recent publications:

• Padulosi, S., Hoeschle-Zeledon, I. and P. Bordoni. 2007. Minor crops and underutilized species: lessons and prospects. In Crop wild relative conservation and use  [5] edited by N. Maxted, B.V. Ford-Lloyd, S.P. Kell, J.M. Iriondo, M.E. Dulloo and J. Turok. Eds. CAB International, Wallingford, UK. 605-624 pp. ISBN 978-1-84593-099-9.  

• Padulosi S., Bhag Mal, S. Bala Ravi, J. Gowda, K.T.K. Gowda, G. Shanthakumar, N. Yenagi and M. Dutta. 2009. Food Security and Climate Change: Role of Plant Genetic Resources of Minor Millets  [6]. Indian J. Plant Genet. Resour. 22(1): 1-16.

• Rojas, W., Valdivia, R., Padulosi, S., Pinto, M., Soto, J.L., Alcocer, E., Guzman, L., Estrada, R., Apaza, V., Bravo, R. 2009. From neglect to limelight: issues, methods and approaches in enhancing sustainable conservation and use of Andean grains in Bolivia and Peru  [7]. In A. Buerkert and Jens Gebauer (Editors), Agrobiodiversity and Genetic Erosion, Contributions in Honor of Prof. Dr. Karl Hammer. Supplement 92 to the Journal of Agricultural and Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics, Kassel university press GmbH. 87-117 pp. ISBN: 978-3-89958-680-0.

• Padulosi S., V. Heywood, D. Hunter and A. Jarvis. 2011. Underutilized Species and Climate Change: Current Status and Outlook  [8]. In Shyam S. Yadav, Robert J. Redden and Jerry L. Hatfield Eds. Crop Adaptation to Climate Change, First Edition. Hermann Lotze-Campen and Anthony E. Hall. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2011 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 507-521 pp.

• Padulosi S, N. Bergamini and T. Lawrence editors. 2012.  On farm conservation of neglected and underutilized species: trends and novel approaches to cope with climate change (4.7 MB)  [9]. Proceedings of an international Conference, Frankfurt, 14-16 June 2011. Bioveristy International, Rome.