Dr. Aberra Debelo

Dr. Aberra has extensive experience as a researcher and leader both at home and abroad. He served as Deputy Director General and acting Director General of the Ethiopian Agriculture Research organization (EARO), now Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), from June 1998 to October, 2003. In this position, he led the development of agricultural research strategic document, implementation of a $90,000,000 comprehensive Agricultural Research and Training Project, managed and gave overall leadership to the national agricultural research system composed of more than 2500 personnel (1000 researchers and about 1500 support staff), represented the National Agricultural Research System at all fora and advice the government of Ethiopia on issues of research direction, agricultural technology generation and utilization.

Dr. Aberra served as country director for Sasakawa Global 2000 (SG 2000) in Ethiopia for more than 13 years. SG 2000 Ethiopia is an international NGO that collaborates with multi-institutions (government, bilateral and non-government organizations) to transfer improved and affordable agricultural technologies along production to consumption value chain for improved livelihood of smallholder farmers.

Between 2003 and 2005 Dr. Aberra coordinated the Eastern and Central Africa Regional Sorghum and Millet (ECARSAM) research network based at ICRISAT Nairobi, Kenya, where he developed project documents and raised fund to be implemented in 10 Eastern and Central African countries, including Ethiopia, and monitored implementation and evaluated performance as per approved project document, and submitted regular reports to the donors.

Dr. Aberra obtained his PhD in plant breeding from Oklahoma State University in the USA, and his MSc and BSc in agronomy and plant sciences from Alemaya College of Agriculture.