Prof. Wachira attained his PhD in Plant molecular biology and genetics from the Dundee University, UK. He carried out his graduate research at the Scottish Crop Research Institute. He has served as Senior Lecturer of plant biochemistry and molecular biology and chairman of the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Egerton University.

He also served as Coordinator of the Integrated Biotechnology Laboratory at the Egerton University. He has contributed to academia by mentoring many young scientists and supervising many graduate research projects at BSc, MSc and PhD levels. At the Tea Research Foundation of Kenya, Prof. Wachira headed the Crop Improvement program. His work won him the 1999 Tea Research Foundation of Kenya Merit Award for a distinguished research contribution. He also won the “First Award in the Agricultural Research Fund (ARF) Crops Research Program in 2003. His work was also recognized in 2000 as an “Example of a Successful Initiative in Science and Technology in the South” and published in “Sharing Innovative Experiences” by the Special Unit for Technical Co-operation among Developing Countries (SUTCDC); United Nations Development Program (UNDP); Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and the Third World Network of Scientific Organizations (TWNSO).

Prof. Wachira received a Science and Technology Agency (STA) Fellowship Award of Japan, in 1999 that enabled him to carry out tea research in Japan. Prof. Wachira has served as a consultant for the tea industry in Rwanda, the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and others. Prof. Wachira’s research has resulted in a number of achievements including the release of five commercialized tea clones. He has also published widely in refereed journals, manuals, conference/workshop papers, working documents, and many others. His professional services include: Member, African Crop Science Society, Plant Breeders Association of Kenya, Biochemical Society of Kenya, and New York Academy of Sciences. Prof. Wachira has served as a reviewer for several journals.

His area of specialization include: plant nutrition management, soil/water management, soil and analytical chemistry, biochemistry of tea (value addition), field experimentation and advanced statistics. He has over 30 years experience in fertilizer research in tea and has done consultancies in the areas of fertilizer formulation and utilization for the tea plant.

John obtained his first and second degrees at the University of Nairobi and a D. Phil in soil/plant nutrition at Moi University. He has published widely and has attended a number of workshops in soil science and tea product diversification.

Previously, he worked as an Assistant Agricultural Officer, Ministry of Agriculture in Tana River District and later at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) as a Research Officer where he worked on improvement and management of temperate fruit trees.

As a Horticulturist at TRFK, John has initiated many field trials on tea management and physiological responses. He has over 17 years of experience in tea management. He has a broad range of interests on tea environmental responses for enhanced sustainable tea productivity in Kenya. He has published widely and has attended a number of workshops on crop management. He holds a Diploma, Horticulture (Egerton); BSc, Agric. (Dalhousie, Canada); MSc, Hort. (Egerton) and PhD, Hort. (Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya).

David has over 22 years of experience in agricultural and forestry research specializing in Soil fertility, Plant Nutrition and Fertilizer use. David’s current areas of interests include; productivity and resource use of ageing of tea gardens, chemistry of acid soils, fertilizer use and soil amendments.

He has published widely and participated in several training workshops and presented in many international conferences. He has also supervised graduate and post-graduate students. He holds a BSc in Chemistry (University of Nairobi), MSc in Forest Science specializing in Soil Fertility (University of Melbourne, Australia) and a PhD in Production Ecology and Resource Conservation (Wageningen University, Netherlands).