Beverley Postma joins HarvestPlus as CEO

HarvestPlus has announced the appointment of Beverley Postma as its new CEO.

She succeeds Dr. Howarth Bouis, the founder of HarvestPlus and a 2016 World Food Prize laureate, the company said in a press release issued yesterday. 

HarvestPlus, a joint venture created by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in 2003, improves nutrition and public health by developing and promoting biofortified food crops that are rich in vitamins and minerals.

HarvestPlus helped Bangladeshi breeders develop world's first biofortified zinc-enriched rice in 2013.

Since then under the support of HarvestPlus, five zinc biofortified rice varieties have been nationally released in Bangladesh with high yield and beneficial agronomic traits desired by farmers.

Out of which, four inbred varieties were released by Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) and one hybrid variety by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU).

Beverley Postma has 25 years of experience as a policy expert in international food systems, nutrition and food security.

She comes to HarvestPlus after six years as founder and executive director of Singapore-based Food Industry Asia (FIA), a non-profit regional platform tackling food security, nutrition and regulatory harmonisation.

On her joining HarvestPlus, Postma said: "I am honoured to join the team at HarvestPlus as it scales up its work to achieve the essential goal of reaching 1 billion people with biofortified food by 2030."

Originally from the UK, Postma is an avid underwater photographer, who holds a PhD and BSc (Hons) in marine biology from the University of Liverpool. 

"We are extremely fortunate to have recruited Beverley Postma as the new CEO of HarvestPlus," said Dr Shenggen Fan, director general of IFPRI.

Dr. Ruben Echeverría, director general of CIAT, said: "Beverley's international experience and her familiarity with food issues, innovation and multi-stakeholder partnerships are important assets for HarvestPlus and the global biofortification movement." 

Approximately 20 million people in low-income farming households in 30 countries around the world are now growing and eating these nutritious staple foods, including cassava, maize and sweet potato enriched with vitamin A; beans and pearl millet enriched with iron; and rice and wheat enriched with zinc.

Testing of biofortified varieties is underway in an additional 25 countries.