Alumnus testimonial
Alumni Indira Gavilan - MSc International Land and Water Management
Indira Gavilan, Agroforestry expert: “I give technical support to smallholder farmers in the global south that are shifting to agroforestry. I do this at Acorn, an initiative from Rabobank. Acorn reaches out to farmers impacted by climate change, and empowers them to transition to climate-smart agroforestry. It makes the voluntary carbon market accessible to smallholder farmers via a platform.”
I feel very happy to support farmers in the global south.
“My job involves reviewing agroforestry design propositions from our local partners to ensure they meet various criteria, such as biodiversity, good agricultural practices and climate related standards. I also model the amount of carbon stored in the trees from these agroforestry designs and support their implementation.”
Agroforestry designs come to life
“Coming from a developing country myself (Peru), I feel very happy to support farmers in the global south. Acorn is a small initiative, but we have so much impact on the farmers in our network. I love to see how our agroforestry designs come to life and to learn from the diverse, rich cultures of the people we work with. Their knowledge is amazing.”
“We have connections with farmers in more than fifteen countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa. I work in the Netherlands, but I regularly visit local partner-organisations and farmers to understand the local context and define the best implementation strategy. But also to answer technical questions. Last month I was in Peru, and soon I will travel to Vietnam to support projects there.
Modelling skills
“Within the master’s programme I followed the specialization in Adaptive Water Management. The analyzing and modelling skills that I obtained help me a lot in the technical part of my job. The course Climate Smart Agriculture was really great to learn how to model, create different scenarios and calculate outcomes for different situations and designs. I constantly apply this now.”
“The programme not only gave me technical knowledge and modelling skills, but it also improved my social skills significantly. Through group assignments, I learned how to work in an international environment with people from different cultures and nationalities. It helped me to always ask myself: what are my colleagues really saying, where does this come from?”
Internship on agroforestry
“For my thesis research I made a comparison of quinoa production under different climate scenarios. That made me think more about the impact of climate change in agricultural systems and how trees can support agriculture, so I wanted to do an internship on agroforestry and carbon capture. Via LinkedIn I found an opportunity at Acorn. It was actually a regular job, not an internship position. But I jumped at this chance and said: I can do this. And now here I am.”