Urcil Kenfack Essougong

Urcil Papito Kenfack Essougong is a Cameroonian Postdoctoral Fellow in Science for Scaling and Impact, based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. He oversees IITA  leads the Delivery and Scaling component of the CocoaSoils program across West and Central Africa and supports the Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning, and Impact Assessment (MELIA) team of the Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) project in Ghana.

He holds a PhD (2023) from Wageningen University (The Netherlands), where his research—hosted by IITA Cameroon under the CocoaSoils Programme—focused on “Analysing the current constraints and effectiveness of service delivery to achieve sustainable cocoa intensification in Cameroon.”. He holds an Erasmus International MSc in Rural Development (2018, with great distinction) from Ghent University (Belgium), and a Master of Engineering (“Ingenieur Agronome”) in Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology (2015, with great distinction) from Dschang University, Cameroon.

He is passionate about translating research into actionable insights that inform agricultural policy and improve smallholder livelihoods. His research interests include agricultural innovation systems, sustainable agricultural development, rural economy and development, agricultural value chain analysis, R&D impact evaluation, natural resources management, and climate change adaptation and mitigation. He has published on topics such as tree crops (cocoa and coffee) producer organisations, community forestry, land tenure systems, agricultural innovation support services delivery, and smallholder farmers’ adoption of agricultural innovations.

Previously, he worked as an M&E Officer for a development NGO and carried out research and technical consultancy for organisations such as Agro-Sans Frontières Cameroun, the World Agroforestry Centre (CIFOR-ICRAF), Wageningen Economic Research Centre, and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ).