Dr. John Recha holds a PhD in Soil Science with minor specialization in Hydrology, and International Agriculture and Rural Development (Cornell University). He has an MSc in Soil Science and Land Management (Sokoine University of Agriculture), and BSc in Agriculture (University of Nairobi).  He joined the Borlaug LEAP Fellowship program in 2008 enhance his doctoral studies.

Before joining the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), as a researcher on Participatory Action Research, he was a Postdoctoral Associate with Cornell University’s Department of Crop and Soil Sciences for a semester, working on soil fertility management. He was a Research Fellow with the World Agro-forestry Centre (ICRAF) from 2007 to 2011. As a Research Fellow, he undertook research on stream water dynamics and carbon and nutrient losses in Nandi watersheds in western Kenya. Prior to that, he worked as a Research Technician with ICRAF from 2004 to 2006, where he coordinated soil fertility management on-farm research in western Kenya’s Nandi chrono-sequence.  He has worked with environmental non-governmental organizations, promoting climate smart agriculture for improving rural livelihoods, and has written research articles on soil fertility management and hydrology in the tropics.