Reinhardt Howeler

Dr. Reinhardt Howeler was born in Indonesia but grew up in the Netherlands. After obtaining his BSc degree in Tropical Agriculture from the International College of Tropical Agriculture in Deventer, the Netherlands, he immigrated to the United States in 1964. He received his MSc degree in Soil Fertility from the University of Missouri in 1966 and a PhD in Soil Chemistry from Cornell University in 1970. He joined CIAT, initially as a postdoc, in June 1970, working on flooded and upland rice, mainly in the Eastern Plains of Colombia. With the establishment of CIAT’s Bean and Cassava Programs in 1973, he was assigned to work on soil and plant nutrition problems for both programs until 1975, when he started working fulltime for the Cassava Program.

In 1986, he was transferred to the CIAT-Bangkok office to work with national programs in many Asian countries in the fields of agronomy and soil fertility management, especially addressing soil erosion issues. After core funding for this program ended in 1994, he obtained special project funding from the Nippon Foundation  and later from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)  to conduct farmer-participatory research (FPR) in collaboration with cassava researchers and extension agents in Cambodia, China, East Timor, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Vietnam, until his retirement in June 2009.

The most interesting and rewarding part of his 39-year career at CIAT was to work directly with cassava farmers in many different countries and see how the FPR approach enhanced the adoption of new cassava varieties and more-sustainable production practices, which in turn increased cassava yields in Asia and markedly improved the lives of many poor farmers.

Dr. Howeler is currently working as a cassava consultant. He has authored or co-authored over 200 publications, and edited 13 books on cassava. He has received numerous awards for his work in Asia, including a Royal Decoration in the Third Class of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant granted by the Thai government.