Edward Mabaya

Biography

Dr. Edward Mabaya, a senior research associate, is assistant director of the Emerging Markets Program in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, part of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. Mabaya is a scholar and development practitioner with more than two decades of experience working on agricultural development and food security issues in Africa. Motivated by his childhood in rural Zimbabwe, he is involved in several programs aimed at improving the lives of African farmers through agriculture.

He is the principal investigator of the African Seed Access Index. His applied research focuses on agriculture and agribusiness value chains in developing countries — particularly in Sub Saharan Africa — with work spanning three interrelated areas: agribusiness in developing countries, seed systems, and agricultural input and output markets serving smallholder farmers. He has published widely on these topics.

Mabaya earned his master’s degree (1998) and Ph.D. (2003) in agricultural economics from Cornell University and his bachelor’s degree (1994) from the University of Zimbabwe. He is a past president of the African Association of Agricultural Economists (2016–2019). He was profiled as one of the “2016 Top African Innovators to Watch” by Ventures Africa magazine and is a 2007 Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellow and 2016 Aspen Global Voices Fellow.

Recent Courses

• AEM 4961/AEM 6960/GDEV 4961/GDEV 6960/NTRES 4961/NTRES 6960 - Perspectives in Global Development

Academic Degrees

• PhD Department of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, 2003
• MS Department of Agricultural, Resource and Managerial Economics, Cornell University, 1998
• BS Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, University of Zimbabwe, 1994