 My name is Alexander Bombom. I'm from Uganda and currently I am based at the National Livestock Resources Research Institute which is one of 16 national research institutes under the National Agriculture Research Organization. What I basically do there is forage breeding, I mean in charge of forage and forage crop breeding and improvement. So my journey to Uganda actually started in Uganda. So way back 2009 if I rewind a bit I was a grad student. And you know in grad school there's always these highs and lows. So I was at this particular law of mind you're looking for variation. My PhD was on plant breeding and specifically I was looking for beta carotene. My challenge then was to find variation for beta carotene, the source for beta carotene in Sorghum which I couldn't find. I tried to get in touch with every Ethiopia because of the gene bank here but they couldn't provide Ethiopia agricultural research institute also didn't have. So in that frustration I had some maize plant some of which we are showing the characteristic for beta carotene, the orange color similar to what you have with orange red sweet potato. So in that moment you're in the greenhouse not knowing where else to turn and I have a male sterile sorghum plant. In sorghum you can have a plant which is female, doesn't produce pollen and that which produces pollen is what we call the male. So I had the female which didn't have pollen and I used the pollen from the maize to dust it on without ever knowing what would happen. Of course I just walked away. One week later I'm doing my rounds in the greenhouse and I noticed when I removed the cover the plant actually is developing seeds and I'm like what's going on here. So I called my friend, my classmate then he was from Zimbabwe. Now Dr. Maposa Mtrebisi at the University of Lupane stage in Zimbabwe. So we all looked at this plant started reading and all the literature said it's not possible and no one had ever done that. Of course we got in touch with our PhD advisor and I think he also didn't believe it. So as students we thought well let's take it upon ourselves and see how we can pass through that. So fast forward 2010 I made an application for a scientific paper writing workshop which was actually being carried out by Beka Ilri at the time. And I shared this with Rob Skelton who was head of capacity building at the time and he also doubted but then provided me with literature and I told him we had all that stuff. So he says okay what proof do you have and we shared with him proof of the picture. So the picture show you the phenotype of what it looks like. Phenotype means the outward appearance of the plant and he's also surprised and he says okay how about you make an application to the Africa Bioscience Challenge Fund and see if you can characterize that. And that was when I moved to Nairobi to actually do that work. Funding of course was from BMGF Swedish, Australia Aid and other partners. And because of that work the director then Dr. Sege Netkelemu got in touch with the Gates Foundation and they funded that research work. So after my PhD I moved on as a postdoc at Beka Ilri to lead that kind of work. So with that work I was able to do a number of things using any type of genomic tools. I took me to the US at the University of Missouri and Tel Aviv University where I worked with Dr. Asaf Desterfield. In Missouri I was with James Brachler. So those added other tools that I couldn't do at Beka which were cytology and cytometry. But my life in Israel and the US was very interesting. In that the people I met there changed the way I looked at things. So yes everybody around me is excited doing this kind of serious work but both of them challenged me differently. The question was yes you've done very good science but what's the point. And the usual thing like any student or any scientist say well I'm going to publish. I want it to be known and the answer was I don't care or they didn't care anyway. And you're like why wouldn't someone actually care. So then the thing came down to me they broke it down to me like it's not so much about people don't actually eat your papers. And I think that's the point we miss as scientists. We're so proud we don't communicate with the end user. The people that will actually make sense out of the innovations we create out of science. So yes it looked like a different dimension of thinking. So the answer was I should be able to put money in their pockets meaning the pockets of the farmers. And in my own pocket you don't just do science for the sake of science it has to have impact. And I think that was a game changer for me. I've never thought of science the same way. Fast forward of course I come back to Nairobi. And of course discussions with my director then Dr. Polina Jikeng. He advised it's better for the innovation to be known to have been done in Uganda rather than in Kenya. And so then I had to move of course with the invitation of the director general of Naro then Dr. Ambrosa Gona and Dr. Yonaba Guma. So they asked me to join Naro as a platform to anchor this kind of work. And since joining then of course I've been able to have the opportunity to have two extra grants. One by by Innovate Africa Program and the other by the Food and Agriculture Organization. Both of which are directly funding this work. So by Innovate is actually looking at value addition to the agro produce that is coming out of this. FAO is looking at making this available to farmers so there is complementarity there. And so I actually see the sense that I was actually told it should make sense to the end user. Science and I think that has changed the way I think about science today. I just don't feel that it should just be for the sake of it and I should be able to communicate to people. So in addition that has also enabled me move a step further. So I think through by Innovate I'm able now to be an entrepreneur. So the way science works in institutions is that you do the science, publish and that's it. And I want to move the extra mile. And that means providing a vehicle to move the innovation, the extra mile. So I registered a company called Bum Vite Agro Industries Limited. Now that is going to be for me what I want to do moving on. So within that I'll of course have the science in it research. I'll have value addition because of by Innovate capacity for farmers because they need to be able to produce this in a much more productive way. And conserve it and of course trading. You have to sell seed, you have to sell grain. So those are the core things I'm thinking of doing under that company. And of course partnering with the national agriculture research systems and still area because that's where I was mentored. So that has been my journey from Uganda back to Uganda and possibly elsewhere in the world.