Dath “Duffy” Mita, Ph.D., is a Senior Global Crop Analyst, a Technical Lead, and Satellite Imagery Archive Manager for the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service Office of Global Market Analysis. He earned his Ph.D. and Master of Science (MSc) degrees in Natural Resources Management from North Dakota State University. A Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from the University of Malawi in Africa.

Dr. Mita has conducted research, taught, and offered extension services involving the integration and applications of satellite earth observations in operational natural resources management and crop forecasting. He has served in various positions including Research Associate at the University of Mississippi GeoInformatics Center (UMGC), Oxford, Mississippi; GIS-Remote Sensing Specialist, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota, and as a Geographer, with Navigation Technologies Inc. (NAVTEQ), Fargo, North Dakota. Prior to these engagements he also served as a Land Resources Conservation and Evaluation Officer for the Ministry of Agriculture, in Malawi-Africa.

Areas of teaching and research interests include: quantitative biophysical modeling of the environmental and agricultural production systems useful in global and regional food security forecasting program management, modeling of processes functioning within natural ecosystems, and the prediction and understanding of their behavior under altered conditions. Dr. Mita's research also incorporates investigation analysis and exploration of policy dynamics, participation, and information in natural resource and environmental management; biodiversity conservation, and investigating technical approaches to local and regional environmental policy development.