He has been involved in rural development for the past nine years of his 17 years with the public sector. Having had experience as a lecturer for the first eight years as professional. After joining the ministry of agriculture in 1996, he was seconded to work with the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) in 1998 for a program that focused on service delivery reforms that subsequently led to the development of a participatory extension approaches (PEA). He shared this project experiences in various forums in South Africa and other Sub–Saharan countries such as Zimbabwe, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania.

He joined PICOTEAM in 2006 and is also a member of PICO South Africa. He is presently involved in the institutionalisation of the PEA process within the Ministry of Agriculture of Limpopo Province, South Africa and adapting the approach to farmers’ new demands. His core competencies are rooted in innovation processes, particularly in soil fertility management which package both the technical and social dimensions, in support of community emancipation for innovation development and access to services, in facilitation of stakeholder platforms for joint sharing, planning and learning, development and management of competency of extension staff, researchers and farmers for service delivery reforms. 

Joe Ramaru’s initial career started as a  Soil Scientist holding degrees of B.Sc. (Agric.) and B.Sc. (Agric.Hons.) obtained from the University of Limpopo in South Africa and Master of Science in “soil chemistry and fertility” from the University of Reading, United Kingdom. To increase his management capability, also graduated from Rand Afrikaans University for Masters Diploma in Human Resource Management. Joe Ramaru is currently busy with PhD studies through Wageningen University in the Netherlands on innovation processes in rural areas of Limpopo.