Kelvin Mashisia Shikuku is Senior Scientist & Economist at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Dr. Shikuku works with the De-Risking and Agricultural Risk Management team and implements innovative research within the Livestock, Climate and Environment (LCE) program. He holds PhD in Development Economics from Wageningen University, Netherlands and MSc in Agricultural and Applied Economics from University of Nairobi, Kenya. His research interests include the use of citizen science and crowdsourced information for anticipatory action and resilience building; diffusion and impacts of climate risk management solutions including the role of agricultural index insurance; agricultural marketing and value chains analysis; the role of socio-technical, financial, and institutional innovations in climate risk management and economic development; estimating resilience of agri-food systems to climatic and non-climatic shocks; food safety including developing countries' willingness to pay for food quality and safety; seed systems and their contribution to agrobiodiversity and resilience. He is currently working on projects seeking to (1) Understand the role of index-based livestock insurance in addressing downside income risk, mitigating conflict and improving livelihoods in the Horn of Africa; (2) Make index insurance fully available for women (MIIFAW); (3) Use citizen science to collect and disseminate crowdsourced weekly rangelands and livestock markets information for early action and resilience building; (4) Assess preferences and willingness to pay for bundled livestock insurance. He applies systems thinking and conducts economic field experiments, quasi-experimental, and non-experimental research to influence evidence-based policy and decision making. Dr. Shikuku currently serves at the editorial board of the African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics (AfJARE) and is a Review Editor in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems - Climate-Smart Food Systems.
