🇿🇼 Zimbabwe

Shelter Mangwanya

Soil Scientist Ministry of Agriculture, Zimbabwe

Shelter Mangwanya is a Senior Soil Scientist and Head of the GIS and Remote Sensing Section in Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development. She is a food systems researcher and practitioner with expertise spanning soil and land resources, geospatial science, smallholder agriculture, food security, climate resilience, and the Water-Energy-Food nexus. She holds a BSc in Soil Science from the University of Fort Hare and an MSc in Environmental Science from the University of the Witwatersrand, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Food Security at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her research focuses on understanding the interconnections between water, energy and food in agrifood systems and translating this knowledge into practical pathways for more sustainable and resilient communities. Her greatest passion is bridging the gap between science and practice by turning research evidence into solutions that respond to the realities of farmers, communities and decision-makers. Her work combines systems thinking, stakeholder knowledge, geospatial approaches and quantitative modelling to support evidence-informed action on food security, climate resilience and sustainable resource management. She has also undertaken international training and research programmes through Texas A&M University’s Borlaug Institute and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).