Virginia Gitonga Email & Phone Number

Kenya

Highly qualified and experienced general manager and flower breeder, with considerable expertise in farm management in Africa, and breeding both in Europe and Africa. A highly efficient individual with excellent time management and organizational skills. Results driven and motivated to succeed, with a passion for achieving goals and exceeding objectives.

Kenya

• Breeding chrysanthemum and Pennisetum, establishing the breeding program and planning the trials necessary to meet market demand.
• Overseeing the efficient crossing programs of more than 15 crops in collaboration with breeders in Europe.
• Establishing a fully functional Laboratory for TC production. Embryo rescue and phytopathology.
• Successfully carrying out difficult crosses with the establishment of embryo rescue capabilities and supporting production location with real time ELISA testing capabilities.

Wageningen, Gelderland, Netherlands

Thesis title: The Genetics of Plant Architecture and Colour in Rose. Focus: Characterizing the variability of major quality traits in a tetraploid rose population. Identifying and verifying markers linked to these morphological traits and analyzing the genetic and genotype × environment interactions affecting the quality of cut roses.

Naivasha, Kenya

• Rose and Fillers Breeder
• Conducting research to categorize breeds with different characteristics for use successfully in intergenetic and interspecific breeding.
• Planning and carrying out breeding to develop and improve roses and fillers.
• Improving specific characteristics such as color, length, flower size, shape, disease resistance and utilizing principles of genetics knowledge of plant growth.
• Developing and selecting the most desirable varieties for crossing.
• Implementing the best practices from Europe and translating them into workable and cost-effective systems in Kenya.

De Lier, South Holland Province, Netherlands

• Breeder for Petunia and Calibrachoa
• Breeding flowers using methods such as inbreeding, crossbreeding, backcrossing, outcrossing, mutating, or interspecific hybridization selection.
• Selecting progeny which have the desired characteristics and continuing the breeding selection process in order to reach the desired objectives.
• Setting up procedures to increase the germination rate of seeds.
• Investigating incidents of crossbreeding failure and adopting alternate procedures to eliminate causes of failure.
• Setting up large projects and document information relevant for identifying markers that can be used for marker assisted breeding.

Kenya

Ensuring the timely production of tissue cultured calla lilies and media preparation. ELISA testing for DsMV in tissue culture plantlets. Ensuring the improvement of the survival rate of plantlets from 50% to 90% in the hardening nursery.

Kenya

Part time lecturer in the Biochemistry Department, responsible for teaching third- and fourth-year students Gene Expression and Regulation and Biosafety.

Master’S Degree, Plant Biotechnology, Distinction

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Biotechnology

Education record