Dr Tim Chancellor
+44 (0)1634 88 3199
Dr Tim Chancellor is a specialist in the capacity strengthening of individuals, organisations, and institutions. His early work was in sustainable pest and disease management in rice, banana, groundnut, and tomato and he had long-term assignments in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. He was also involved in several research and consultancy activities in Latin America. He led NRI’s Plant, Animal & Human Health Group from 2001 to 2006 and from 2007 to 2021 coordinated the Institute’s work on capacity strengthening and partnership development. He helped to develop and manage the £11m continent-wide Strengthening Capacity for Agricultural Research and Development in Africa project funded by DFID (now FCDO). He has maintained his research interests in sustainable agricultural systems and from 2014-2017 he acted as Liaison Scientist for the McKnight Foundation’s Collaborative Crop Research Program in southern Africa. He has a long-standing involvement in Agrinatura, the European Alliance on Knowledge for Agricultural Development, and has worked extensively with the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Africa (RUFORUM). He is currently a member or RUFORUM’s International Advisory Panel.
Tim has contributed to the development of new approaches to capacity strengthening of organizations and institutions, including methodologies for institutional analysis and change management. A key challenge is how to address the capacity needs of the different types of organizations involved in agricultural innovation platforms so that they can work together effectively and achieve their particular objectives. New insights have been gained through initiatives such as the Platform for Africa-Europe Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development.
Tim is interested in the development and application of ecological approaches to insect pest and disease management. His work has involved integrating knowledge on the population dynamics of insect vectors of crop diseases with an understanding of temporal and spatial patterns of disease spread in order to bring about improved disease control. He has also carried out research on the economic, social and cultural factors which influence crop management decisions and on pest and disease control practices utilized by resource-poor farmers.
He is interested in exploring ways to make agricultural information more relevant and more accessible to smallholder farmers, especially those located in remote areas. A particular interest is how to harness the potential of new information and communication technologies for the benefit of smallholders.
- Roshania, R.P., Yates, J., McIntyre, L., Chancellor, T.C.B, Fivian, E., Hill, M., Isoto, R., Marinda, P., Narayanan, S., Whatford, L., Zotor, F., Khandelwal, S. (2023) Assessing needs for interdisciplinarity in agriculture, nutrition, and health education. Global Food Security (37): 1-9, DOI: 10.1016/j.gfs.2023.100691
- Ofori-Kyereh, B.E., Morton, J.F. & Chancellor, T. C. B. (2022) Constraints on farmers’ adaptive capacity to climate variability and change, Climate and Development, 15:4, 312-324, DOI: 10.1080/17565529.2022.2083546
- Nicklin, C., Chancellor, T., Garcia, A., Gohole, L., Haussmann, B., Kaijage, P., Maland Cady, J., Miller, K., Moore, M., Nelson, R., Powers, M., & Somé, B. (2021). Funder-Initiated Communities of Practice as a Means for Sharing and Creating Knowledge in Order to Strengthen the Adaptive Capacity of Systems. The Foundation Review, 13(1), DOI: 10.9707/1944-5660.1554
- Chancellor, Tim C.B., Priebe, Jan S.H. Mkenda, & Prisila A. (2019) Crowdsourcing Field Observations from Smallholder Farmers in Tanzania Using Interactive Voice Response. Outlooks on Pest Management (30:3): 104-110, DOI: 10.1564/v30_jun_02
- Mukanga, M., Matumba, L., Makwenda, B., Alfred, S., Sakala, W., Kanenga, K., Chancellor, T., Mugabe, J. & Bennett, B. (2019) Participatory evaluation of groundnut planting methods for pre-harvest aflatoxin management in Eastern Province of Zambia. Cahiers Agricultures 28 (1), DOI: 10.1051/cagri/2019002
- Matumba, L. Singano, L.,Tran, B., Mukanga, M., Makwenda, B., Kumwenda, W., Mgwira, S., Phiri, S., Mataya, F., Mthunzi, T., Alfred, S., Madzivhandila, T., Mugabe, J., Bennett, B., & Chancellor, T. (2018) Managing aflatoxin in smallholder groundnut production in Southern Africa: Paired comparison of the windrow and Mandela cock techniques. Crop Protection 112: 18-23.
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In December 2022 Tim received a Recognition Award from RUFORUM for services to higher education and agricultural development in Africa.