• Question: in your 'about me' section you say you would donate the money to charity. doesnt that defeat the boject of you being given the oppertunity and money to do your research?

    Asked by scienceisgr8 to Hugh on 14 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Hugh Roderick

      Hugh Roderick answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      The object is to use the money to communicate your work (£500 won’t get a lot of research done!). The charity I would donate the money to is Farm Africa, an organisation that communicates the best farming methods to poor rural farmers in East Africa. Producing the pest resistant bananas, that is the aim of my work, is the easy part. Unlike in the UK where farmers go to specific seed companies to buy their seeds, in Africa there is no formal system for selling seeds and plants to farmers so it is through charities like Farm Africa that I’ll be able to get my banana plants to the farmers.

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