A UGA project is one of 22 winners of the 2008 Global Development Marketplace on Sustainable Agriculture, a competition to award grants to small-scale development initiatives.
Engineering professor William Kisaalita received the $200,000 award in Washington, D.C., for his project in Uganda to field test a renewable energy-powered milk cooler in the hands of smallholder dairy farmers.
This year’s competition was focused on agriculture as a potential pathway out of poverty for the 75 percent of the world’s poor who live in rural areas. The grant will allow Kisaalita to field test the cooler he developed with undergraduate students in a rural community with approximately 100 farmers to reduce post-harvest losses and increase farm income.
A native of Uganda and recipient of the inaugural Scholarship of Engagement Award from UGA’s Office of the Vice President of Public Service and Outreach, Kisaalita has been instrumental in initiating sustainable development projects in Morocco, Burkina Faso and China, as well.
