Dr Christian Thierfelder is a Principal Cropping Systems Agronomist and Strategic Leader, specializing in Conservation Agriculture (CA) systems research with International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). He is based in Harare, Zimbabwe and covers the whole southern African region. He trained as a Soil Scientist at the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Germany and did his PhD-project with the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) on soil conservation in Cali, Colombia. He received his PhD with the University of Hohenheim, Germany in 2003. Since 2004, he has been involved in CA related projects led by International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Dr Thierfelder has conducted applied and strategic research on-farm and on-station to adapt CA to the needs and environments of smallholder farmers in southern Africa. Since 2009 he has been project leader of several large CA projects. He guided the research programs of 25 Bsc, MSc and PhD students, and published more than 85 research articles in peer-reviewed high-impact journals and books (current Scopus H- factor 30).
