Ag Professor with local ties honored on international stage

by Matt Hughes

J-E News Editor

A Cornell University Plant Breeder with ties to Webster County was recently honored by the Global Confederation of Higher Education Associations for Agricultural and Life Sciences (GCHERA), earning the inaugural 2013 World Agriculture Prize.

Ronnie Coffman actually grew up in the Dalton, Kentucky area, but he still has strong ties to Webster County.

“My wife, Charlotte Westerman, is the daughter of Paul and Edna Westerman, both of whom are still on the home farm near Poole,” he said. “They recently celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary.”

He also added that his sister, Jane, is married to long time Providence physician Dr. Tristen Lineberry.

 As a boy Coffman said that his family shopped and took care of most of their buisness in Providence.

D. Branchini/IPCALS

Ronnie Coffman, right, and Cornell graduate student Ariel Chan 

International Agriculture and Rural Development class observe
 broccoli plants in Mahabaleshwar, India, in January 2013, during an
International Agriculture and Rural Development class.

 “I was born near Stony Point in 1943 and coming to Providence every Saturday afternoon is one of my earliest memories,” said Coffman. “We bought groceries at the Red Front, located down the hill on West Main St, just across from the Greyhound bus station on Walnut Street. If there was time, I took in a movie at the Lido Theatre on North Broadway. Then I would pick up a comic book for 10¢ at the Dimestore a couple of doors south. After that I would head over to Humphrey’s Drugstore on East Main for a treat at the soda fountain.”

Coffman has served on the faculty of Cornell University since 1981 and is director of International Programs in Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (IP-CALS). He recieved the World Agriculture Prize in recognition of his remarkable success in promoting global collaborative partnerships and building leadership capacity in men and women interested in crop improvement.  

“Ronnie Coffman embodies the college’s mission of ‘Knowledge with public purpose,’” said Kathryn Boor, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), who nominated him for the award. “He has spent his career ensuring that people with scarce resources in some of the world’s most populous countries have access to the agricultural science they need to produce crops best adapted to the challenges they face. He excels as an agent of change.”

The GCHERA, along with China’s Nanjing Agricultural University (NAU), established the GCHERA World Agricultural Prize to recognise the contribution of a faculty staff member from an agricultural and life science university who has significantly contributed to the mission of the university through education, research and knowledge transfer for the benefit of society.

Professor Zhou Guanghong, the President of NAU, welcomed Ronnie Coffman to the award ceremony and Philippe Choquet announced him as the World Food Prize Laureate 2013 on October 20 during GCHERA’s annual meeting, which also celebrated the 111th anniversary of NAU.  This annual award is being given for the first time in 2013.  

“For more than 40 years, Dr. Ronnie Coffman has played an international role in academic circles providing for safe and secure food, and the use of renewable resources,” said Philippe Choquet, Chair of GCHERA. “The World Agriculture Prize recognizes his significant contribution to our universities’ mission of education, research and knowledge transfer for the benefit of society.”  

Believing it is “vitally important to fund universities of agriculture and life sciences,” in his acceptance speech, Coffman said, “The world’s farmers need access to the best science that the many great institutions of GCHERA can deliver in order to produce crops that are nutritionally adequate and best adapted to future challenges.”   

 Coffman said new technologies — including biotechnologies — must be made accessible to all the world’s farmers so that nutritionally superior seeds that are well-adapted to climate change are put in the hands of farmers with limited resources.  

Coffman is also a firm believer in getting women involved in the agricultural field, feeling that they are often underserved by science and technology education in the fight against hunger. He said he plans to donate the $50,000 World Agriculture Prize to AWARE, a new initiative at Cornell that makes strategic interventions to improve women’s lives and funds advancement opportunities for young women in agriculture.

“AWARE, which stands for Advancing Women in Agriculture Through Research and Education, focuses on women in agriculture as an underserved group because women hold the greatest potential to make significant impacts in rural development,” said Coffman. “Colleges of agriculture and life science need to empower women as future champions around the globe so they can become the entrepreneurs of their own future as well as the planet’s.”

Last year he was recognized for his efforts mentoring women scientists by recieveing the Women in Agronomy Crops Soils and Environmental Sciences Award.

As Director of International Programs, Coffman has built a portfolio of funded research projects in IP-CALS that exceeds $150 million. One of his most prominent is the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI), coordinated through the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat (DRRW) project which is funded by The UK Department for International Development and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.