Abigael Nekesa Otinga is a Soil Scientist and the current Head of Department of Soil Science at the University of Eldoret, Kenya. She is also the founding Coordinator of the Outreach and International Students’ Centre (OISC) at UoE which she led for five years. Her roles at the university include but not limited to teaching, research and outreach. Dr. Otinga’s expertise spans from Soil Chemistry, Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition focusing mainly on soil fertility management across various agro-ecological zones in Kenya and other parts of SSA. Her research focus has been on optimizing the use of NPK fertilizer on cereals, grain legumes and fodder, as well as recently on Zn and Cu in nutrient-depleted, acidic soils in both large and small scale farming systems. Her works contribute to decreasing fertilizer requirements with concomitant increase in yields in tropical agricultural production systems through increasing the efficiency of applied resources. Her works also contribute to enhancing the performance of poor responsive soils to achieve resilience of cropping systems in the face of climate change and dwindling fertilizer resources. Recently, her research interest is horning on in the quantification of greenhouse gas emissions in these systems. In the Soil Science Department, she heads the research committee and is in charge of the department’s curricula. Dr Otinga holds a B.Sc and M.Phil from Moi University and a PhD from the prestigious KU Leuven, Belgium. After her undergraduate studies, she worked as an extension officer at Vi-Agroforestry Project, in Kitale, Kenya after which joined Moi University for the M.Phil with a scholarship from Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM). Dr Otinga is a Principle Investigator (PI) and a collaborator in various projects dealing with outreach programmes geared towards rural agricultural development and capacity building in higher institutions. She is a proud holder of the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) Fellowship. Dr. Otinga has passion working with smallholder farmers and is involved in various projects in this aspect. In relation to this she has published several articles in soil fertility management of the tropics specific to optimizing production from minimal inputs in the region. She sits on various committees in the University of Eldoret and is chair of the Welfare Organization in the Department of Soil Science. Otinga is a member of the Soil Science Society of East Africa, the Soil Science Society of America, the Crop science Society of America and the American society of Agronomy. As a result of passionately engaging in rural agricultural development, Otinga has interacted with various stakeholders in multi-disciplinary fora. Further, Otinga has experience working with international programmes and exchange of students from Europe and Africa.

Department of
Soil Science, School of Agriculture and Biotechnology, University of Eldoret,
P. O. Box 1125-30100, Eldoret, Kenya.

Email: abigaelno@uoeld.ac.ke; amarishas@yahoo.com; Tel.:
Office – +254 020 2123312; Mobile +254 712 211001; Skype name: abigaelno