Jones, Monty

Dr. Monty Jones is a breeder by profession and currently the Executive Director of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA based in Ghana. He is a co-winner of the 2004 World Food Prize for the development of the New Rice for Africa (NERICA), which encompasses the inter-specific progenies, bred by traits of the traditional robust African rice varieties (O.glaberrima) with the productive Asian varieties (O.sativa). This truly inter-specific hybrid has important morpho-agronomic traits for weed suppression and higher levels of resistance/tolerance to major biotic and abiotic stresses; it also gives higher yield and tastes good. Dr. Jones is the recipient of an honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Birmingham. He has also received awards such as the Insignia of the Grand Officer Award from the order of the Rokel, Sierra Leone; the National Order of Merit Award from Cote d’Ivoire; and the King Bedouin Award given to WARDA by the CGIAR. In 2007, he was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by the New York Times.