dr.ir. MA (Maja) Slingerland

Maja Slingerland has a Master degree in tropical animal production systems (1988, with distinction) and PhD degree in mixed crop-livestock farming systems in west Africa (2000), both at Wageningen University. She has been teaching in Van Hall Larenstein Deventer (1989-91) and worked 3 years(1991-93) as SNV employee with FAO in a community forest management program  in Mali. Immediately after she worked for 6 years in Burkina Faso at Wageningen University  outreach station (1993-99) as coordinator natural resource management programme and director. She initiated and supervised Bachelor, Master and PhD studies and coordinated the interdisciplinary  research programme. Furthermore she was financial and administrative manager of the outreach station. Back in Wageningen she initiated and coordinated large  interdisciplinary research programmes: micronutrients (China, Benin, Burkina Faso); competing claims on natural resources (southern Africa and Brazil) and sustainable oilpalm (Indonesia and Thailand), She was member of the steering committee of WU strategic funded interdisciplinary programmes "Scaling and Governance" and "Smart and Sustainable Food production", but also of several NWO-WOTRO funded programmes. Her interest is in food security  and sustainable development with farming systems as unit  of  analysis, and she likes to work on these subjects with the social sciences. She initiates and supervises PhD, Master and Bachelor studies, partipates in public debates and publishes in scientific and popular journals. She initiated and coordinates two interdisciplinary  courses (global food security and advanced bioresources) and gives guest lecturesin a diversity  of other courses in and outside Wageningen University. Since 15 years she works intensively on oil palm and  cocoa production systems in South East Asia and West Africa.She focusses on living income of smallholders and diversity in cropping systems (intercropping, integration with livestock) to increase resilience and adaptation to volatile prices and climate change.