is the Executive Secretary of GlobalHort – The Global Horticulture Initiative and also serves as senior researcher and as the project coordinator for the “Program of Accompanying Research for Agricultural Innovation – PARI” at the Center for Development Research – ZEF from the University of Bonn in Germany.

He holds a doctoral degree in agricultural economics from the University of Kiel and a Master’s degree in international agricultural development from the Technical University in Berlin.

Detlef Virchow has formerly worked as the Executive Manager of the Food Security Center at the University of Hohenheim and as the Director of the Regional Center for Africa of AVRDC-The World Vegetable Center in Tanzania, as a Senior Project Manager at InWEnt – Capacity Building International, and as Head of the agricultural department of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Democratic Republic of Congo. His research areas are food security, rural and regional development, horticulture for development as well as natural resource management.

Born in Namibia, Detlef grew up in East Africa before he moved to Germany for secondary and tertiary education.