Dr Tobias Takavarasha, an independent Agriculture and Food Security Adviser, is a former United Nations Food and Agriculture (FAO) Representative in the Republic of South Africa from February 2013 to June 2016 and Acting FAO Representative in Kenya (18 November 2019 to 17 October 2020). Before this he worked as a Senior Agricultural Policy & Investment Officer at the NEPAD Planning and Coordination Agency (NPCA) in South Africa seconded from the FAO to support the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) and agriculture and food security related programs in Africa.

He also worked as Director for Strategy, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in Nairobi, Kenya (2008-2010) and is a former Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Agriculture in Zimbabwe (1996-2002), having joined the Ministry in 1980 rising through the ranks. He has worked extensively in Malawi and in the SADC region within the agricultural public and private sectors including as Chief Executive Officer of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN, 2002-2004) based in South Africa where he also served as Interim CEO in 2017-18 and currently serves as Strategic Advisor to the FANRPAN Board. Tobias is also on the Advisory Board of the Zimbabwe Investment & Development Agency (ZIDA) since May 2020.

Tobias holds a PhD. in Agricultural Policy (University of Zimbabwe, 1996), a Master’s Degree in Agricultural Economics and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Leeds and Birmingham Universities, 1977 and 1979 respectively.