Silvestro Meseka is Associate Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics at the Agricultural Research Corporation, Sudan. Currently, he is a Maize Associate Scientist at IITA in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Silvestro has been coordinating the “dissemination of maize hybrids project” under the Program for Africa Seeds System of the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (PASS-AGRA) in seven selected countries of West Africa (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone) since March 2011.

Silvestro obtained his Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Genetics from the University of Gezira, Sudan, while he was employed at the Agricultural Research Corporation of the Sudan. He was a research fellow at IITA in the Maize Improvement Program; Visiting scientist at CIMMYT-Nairobi, Kenya; Consultant with FAO-Juba, and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, southern Sudan.

His professional background is genetic improvement of maize for drought stress and low nitrogen. He was a focal point person in southern Sudan for “NERICA-Upscaling in northern Uganda and southern Sudan. He also represented Sudan in the Eastern Africa Maize Network at ASARECA (Association for Strengthening Agriculture in Eastern and Central Africa), and supervised and mentored several postgraduate students at Gezira and Juba universities in Sudan, and Makerere University, Uganda.