The Banana Asia-Pacific network (BAPNET) is the first network to have chosen who will represent them on the ProMusa Steering Committee. In January, the BAPNET Steering Committee unanimously elected Gus Molina, the Asia-Pacific regional coordinator for Bioversity International’s Commodities for Livelihoods programme. He had been acting as the network’s representative since their admission to the Steering Committee last May.
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Miguel Dita
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Meanwhile, the seat left vacant by Luis Pocasangre, when he stepped down last July from his position as Regional Coordinator of the Latin America and Caribbean network (MUSALAC) and Scientist, Soil and Plant Health for Sustainable Banana and Plantain Production at Bioversity International, has been filled by Miguel Angel Dita Rodriquez.
Miguel Dita has a degree in agronomy and an MSc in Plant Biotechnology from the Central University of Las Villas in Cuba. He completed his PhD in Plant Pathology at the Federal University of Viçosa in Brazil in 2003. He started his research career as a Plant Pathologist at the Plant Biotechnology Institute in Cuba, followed by stints as a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture in Spain as well as at the Federal University of Lavras and the Federal University of Viçosa in Brazil. He also trained in Germany and the Netherlands.
Prior to taking up his new position at Bioversity’s Turrialba office in Costa Rica, Dita was a plant pathologist at EMBRAPA in Brazil. He has dual nationality, Brazilian and Cuban, and is fluent in Spanish, English and Portuguese.