Mekidani Salu: Engineering resilience in the field

For University of Georgia student Mekidani Salu, food insecurity was never an abstract concept; it was a daily reality in his small farming community in northeastern Nigeria. Growing up in Adamawa State, he witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of pests and diseases as neighbors and family members lost both crops and income.

“As a child, I was curious why some fields thrived while others failed,” Salu said. That childhood curiosity has since transformed into a career dedicated to plant pathology and a desire to empower farmers through science-backed solutions.

Fighting the soybean cyst nematode

Now a doctoral student in the Department of Plant Pathology in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Salu is tackling one of the most significant threats to U.S. soybean production: the soybean cyst nematode, Heterodera glycines.

While farmers have long relied on resistant cultivars, soybean cyst nematode populations are beginning to evolve and overcome these defenses. While some nematode populations can break the crop’s resistance, doing so may reduce their overall health, a trade-off Salu is working to understand and exploit.

Salu’s research focuses on the genetic and ecological mechanisms behind this adaptation. His project involves multiple key technical objectives:

• Gene stacking: Salu evaluates how stacking different soybean resistance genes influences nematode population dynamics and virulence profiles.
• Molecular monitoring: His work combines greenhouse testing with molecular tools to monitor nematode health and virulence gene expression.
• Reducing chemical dependency: By improving resistance durability, the project aims to reduce grower dependence on chemical agents.

“Agriculture is not just about growing crops, it’s about growing equity, resilience and opportunity through sustainable, science-driven solutions,” Salu said.

Bridging the gap between lab and field

“The student fellowship training opportunities supported by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) provide transformative experiential learning that strengthens technical expertise, critical thinking and leadership capacity in food and agricultural sciences,” said Harshavardhan Thippareddi, associate dean for research at CAES and John Bekkers Professor of Poultry Science.

To maximize the real-world impact of his work, Salu joined the FFAR Fellows Program. A key component of his fellowship is his partnership with industry sponsor Corteva Agriscience. Having previously interned with the company, Salu is using this mentorship to learn how early-stage molecular discoveries are scaled into practical, real-world solutions. He says this exposure allows him to design research questions that are both biologically meaningful and agriculturally actionable.

Through the program, Salu aims to refine his leadership and communication skills, ensuring he can translate complex scientific ideas for diverse audiences, from policymakers to the farmers he serves.

“I want to be a scientist in an industry setting. My whole goal is to see how I can be the most useful and effective by the time I get an opportunity to work in the industry, and I think FFAR is doing a good job of preparing me for that,” he said. “We talk about things like communication, project management, emotional intelligence, how to have crucial conversations, working in teams, dealing with different kinds of people. I can apply all of these not just as a scientist, but as a human being.”

Learn more about how the FFAR Fellowship is preparing CAES students to tackle global agriculture challenges at fieldreport.caes.uga.edu.