Dr. Mary Christine Shetto is a Agriculture and Rural Development practitioner with over 20 years of experience in the management of agricultural development programmes and provision of advisory services in Tanzania. Before joining Kilimo Trust, she worked with the Ministry of Agriculture Food Security and Cooperatives and Development Projects in Tanzania.

She joined Kilimo Trust as the Team Leader of the Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI) and Kilimo Trust Tanzania. Specifically, Mary has knowledge and long experience with respect to: a) Leadership of a project implementation teams composed of public and private sector institutions to design solutions for agricultural sector development in Tanzania, for example: i) Her work for six years as Head of Extension Component (US$ 18 million) of the IFAD funded Southern Highlands Extension and Rural Financial Services Project (SHERFSP); and ii) Lead Facilitator in the World Bank funded - Participatory Agricultural Development and Empowerment Project (PADEP).

b) Deep knowledge of the agricultural sector in general and the rice sector in particular, of Tanzania – as gained through implementation of the SHERFSP Project, Agricultural Sector Development Programme (ASDP) as a National Facilitators since 2006 and the Big Results Now initiatives (BRN) as Head of Ministerial Delivery Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture Food Security and Cooperatives (MAFC).

c) Skills and experience in M&E leadership – gained during her engagement with the PADEP of the GoT and World Bank which was a nearly US$ 70 million program with a sizeable Matching Grant component.