Oumar Niangado is the delegate of Syngenta Foundation for West Africa. Previously, he was the Director of the Cinzana Research Station in Mali and subsequently became the Director General of the National Agricultural Research Institute (Institut d’Economie Rurale (IER)). Oumar has been a member of CIRAD’s scientific commission and CGIAR, as well as other scientific institutions including Fondation pour l’Agriculture et la Ruralité dans le Monde (FARM) and International Foundation for Science (IFS).

Whilst Director of the Cinzana research station, Oumar was active in the development of the ROCAFREMI and ROCARS cereal networks. In partnership with the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), he was pivotal in making Cinzana research station the main station of agroforestry it is today. As a cereal breeder, Oumar has worked closely with the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropic (ICRISAT) on the development of technologies for the Sahelian zone; many varieties that were developed are now widely adopted in Mali.

Today, his work at the Syngenta Foundation is focused on linking smallholders to markets, testing different models of public-private-partnership (PPP) in Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal on the rice value chain.