Hervé D. Bisseleua

Hervé D. Bisseleua is the Director of Agricultural Productivity based in the WCF Ghana Office. He plays a key role in WCF’s thematic agricultural productivity work including planting materials and soil fertility and in leading ACI II. Hervé brings with him nearly 17 years’ experience in cocoa production and sustainability, community-based cocoa research, economic aid, and development projects.

Before joining WCF, Hervé was a Senior Innovation Systems Scientist with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). While at ICRAF, Hervé coordinated integrated systems, research and development activities, and contributed significantly in re-awakening the practice of integrated systems research within the Humidtropics CGIAR integrated research programs in Africa, Latin America, and South East Asia. Hervé’s strong interdisciplinary background spans across several disciplines such as agricultural productivity, plant breeding, nutrient management and plant protection, rural financial services and marketing, youth entrepreneurship, innovation systems thinking, gender and climate change among others. He was particularly instrumental in scaling agricultural innovations through multi-stakeholder partnerships at the regional, continental, and global levels.

Prior to joining ICRAF in November 2014, Hervé held several positions with the Millennium Development Centre of the Earth Institute of Columbia University (New York City) for West and Central Africa as Associate Director. His other past positions include, deputy-director of the Millennium Villages Project in West Africa, team leader and special adviser to the Islamic Development Bank, team leader of integrated local development and cooperate social responsibilities in extractives industries in West Africa, senior scientist at the Foundation Prince Albert II of Monaco, team leader and senior scientist at SOROS Foundation, executive secretary for the Sustainable Development Solution Network (SDSN), and chair of the scientific committee of the Millennium Villages Project.

Hervé has published several papers in peer reviewed journals on cocoa agroforestry systems with a strong focus on livelihoods of local communities and strategies to eliminate deforestation from the agriculture commodity chain.

Hervé completed his Ph.D. (suma cum laude) at the Georg-August University in Goettingen, Germany with a focus on agricultural ecology and completed his post-doctoral studies at the University of Goettingen with a focus on environment and resource economics. He received his MPhil in agricultural entomology from the University of Ghana, Legon and received his BSc in applied zoology from the University of Dschang in Cameroon.