Biography

Dr Sunette Laurie Laurie is a Specialist Researcher at the ARC-VIMP. She holds an MSc in Agronomy and PhD in Plant Breeding. Dr Laurie is Team Leader of the sweet potato biofortifcation and technology transfer program, which also incorporates the crop-based approach to address malnutrition through vegetable production and nutrition education. Research facets include breeding of improved cultivar, cultivation research of sweet potato, tunnel production of a variety of vegetables, product development, and postharvest studies and coordinating research trials and training farmers in crop production. Dr Laurie is the author or co-author of 69 peer-reviewed scientific papers, two books, six technical reports, and two book chapters; and made 199 presentation at local and international scientific conferences.
Dr Laurie has released 19 sweet potato cultivars and was selected as one of Africa’s 20 most influential plant breeders of 2020 by the Southern African Plant Breeders Association. She holds a NRF C2-rating. Dr Laurie is currently managing the implementation of orange-fleshed sweet potato in three pilot areas of Eastern Cape to address the high child mortality rate through reducing malnutrition. She was project manager for three years of the former DRDLR funded project to establishment sweet potato enterprises is six provinces.