Retrospect and Prospects of Livestock
Research and Development in Ethiopia
Azage Tegegne, ILRI
27 Annual Conference of Ethiopian Society of
Animal Production (ESAP), EIAR, Addis Ababa, 29–31 August 2019

Outline
 The Beginning: Alemaya College of Agriculture – Education, Research & Extension
 Establishment of National Agricultural Extension System and IAR
 Livestock Projects at IAR CADU, ARDU, WADU
 Livestock Research at IAR, EARO, EIAR
 Regional Agricultural Research Institutes (RARIs)
 Expansion of Universities
 International Organizations and NGOs
 Chronic Issues in the research system
 Challenges
 Opportunities
 Prospects

The Beginning: Alemaya College of Agriculture and
Mechanical Arts – Emperors visit OSU, June 18, 1954
 In early 1950s the GoE and USA agreed to establish the then Alemaya
College of Agriculture.
 Agreement signed on May 15, 1951 - to establish, direct, administer a
College to conduct instruction, demonstration, research, extension and
to promote development and use of agricultural and mechanical
techniques in Ethiopia.
 OSU was contracted by the US to develop the College. Classes started in
September 1953 at Jimma Agricultural and Technical School and was
moved to Alemaya site in 1956.
 The first batch of 11 students graduated with B.Sc. degree in General
Agriculture in January 1958.
 On December 18, 1961 the College became a Chartered unit of Haile
Selassie I University (HSIU). From 1961-1966, C. Kindell was the last
President of the College.
Clyde R. Kindell – The last
President of Alemaya College
of Agriculture

Alemaya – Research Focus until 1970’s
 Dairy – Pure Holstein Friesian cattle
 Beef – Borana, Ogaden, Hereford, Simmental, Brahman
 Poultry – Mainly exotic breeds
 Bull stations for crossbreeding and poultry farms
around the college – export of chicken meat and eggs
to Djibouti, Yemen, and other Middle East Countries
 Shoats – Almost none
 Fisheries – None
 Apiculture – None
 Camel – None

1970-1980 – Dormant research
 The political unrest and the Ethio-Somalia war disrupted the teaching and research
activities. Most of the American and Ethiopian Senior Staff left the college.
 The College was temporarily closed and the whole program was moved to Awassa.
 In 1978, the college was re-habilitated and a Graduate School at MSc level was
opened at Alemaya. The program had to depend on some Ethiopian staff, and
expatriates mainly from the USSR and GDR. This gave an opportunity to re-kindled
research on livestock, with focus on disciplinary research to train MSc students
with some practical applications.
Alemaya –
 Senior staff: Wario Godana, Ephrem Mammo, Beyene Chichaibelu, Keno Banjaw,
Zegeye Yigezu, and expatriates (Uganda, GDR, USSR),
 Junior staff: Alemu Yami, Azage Tegegne, Tesfaye Ayalew, Tsegaw Belay, Shimelis
Arega, Getachew Gebru, Woldu Tekledebesay, etc.
Debre Zeit
 Goshu Mekonnen, Meaza, Mekonnen Lema,

CADU, WADU, ARDU, MoA
 CADU/ARDU Action research – focus on dairy
 Cross-breeding Arsi cows with Holstein Friesian semen/bulls
 Gobe cattle multiplication ranch
 Proposal to establish a 60,000 litres capacity milk processing plant at Asella to supply the
increasing demand in Addis Ababa
 Getachew Worku; Alemayehu Mengistu, Yemewodew, Mohammed Yousuf Kurtu,
 WADU – Action research focused on dairy using Jersey cattle
 MoA
 Abernossa Cattle Multiplication and Improvement Ranch
 Andassa Fogera Cattle Multiplication and Improvement Ranch
 Metekel Fogera Cattle Multiplication and Improvement Ranch
 Animal Health – NVI, NAHRDI,
 Various development project (JIRDU, SORDU, NLDP, ILDP, Rangeland Development,
etc)

Worku Mekasha – Vice Minister of Agriculture under H.I.M.
 Established the Ethiopian Agricultural Extension System under MoA
 Established IAR and became the first Director General in 1966
 IAR - one of the oldest agricultural institute in Africa.
 In 1997 it was named EARO, and now, it is called EIAR.
 During its formative periods, the institute started agricultural trials
on crops and livestock on few selected research centres.
 The first crop variety was released in 1969 by the National Crop
Improvement Committee (NCIC).

Livestock Research @ IAR/EARO/EIAR
 Prof. McDowell designed a dairy development project based on genotype x
environment interactions – 1966 to 1991 (25 years): Critical point
 Two highland stations – Holetta and Bako
 Two lowland stations – Adami Tulu and Melka Werer
 Three indigenous breeds – Borana, Horro and Barka
 Three exotic breeds – Holstein-Friesian, Jersey and Simmental
 Small Ruminants – Afar (Adal) sheep and goats and Horro sheep – limited work
 Focus on dairy, with beef and animal traction as intermediate outputs
 No Research on poultry, equine, apiculture and sericulture (MoA, then OARI), camel,
animal power (ILRI/EIAR) - dairy-draft), fisheries and aquaculture (MoA, then EIAR),
animal health – (on and off), agricultural economics – (limited due to funding),
agricultural engineering – (mainly modification of the plough and some milk and
honey processing equipment), gender, environment and energy

Livestock Research at IAR Stations
 The approach was to ensure adequate high level staff at Holetta to
coordinate all activities across research stations.
 Holetta – Dairy, Forage
 Adami Tulu - Dairy
 Melka Werer – Dairy, Shoats
 Bako – Dairy, Sheep
 Melkassa - None
 Mekelle - None
 Adet - None
 Hawassa – None
 Debre Zeit – Under Alemaya Dairy, beef, poultry, sheep, forages

Research Staff Profile at IAR (1979 – 1990)
Stagnant recruitment and none existence of staff development
Year
All IAR Livestock
PhD MSc DVM BSc PhD MSc DVM BSc
1979 14 67 3 163 1 (7.2) 7 (10.5) 2 18
1980 15 78 2 188 1 (6.7) 6 (7.7) 4 22
1981 18 91 5 213 1 (5.6) 8 (8.8) 5 26
1982 19 88 6 231 1 (5.3) 8 (9.1) 6 25
1983 21 97 5 234 1 (4.8) 8 (8.3) 5 25
1984 21 86 5 253 1 (4.8) 8 (9.3) 5 31
1985 22 94 4 241 1 (4.6) 8 (8.5) 4 31
1986 25 78 2 145 2 (8.0) 8 (10.3) 2 10
1987 29 101 1 119 2 (6.9) 8 (7.9) 1 10
1988 27 102 3 114 2 (7.4) 7 (6.9) 3 7
1989 28 104 3 136 2 (7.1) 9 (8.7) 3 7
1990 23 93 3 138 ? ? ? ?
Numbers in brackets are percentages

IAR – Contributions to NCIC, NLIC and ESAP
 NCIC – National Crop Improvement Conference; livestock
sessions were held under the NLIC until 1988.
 In 1988, National Livestock Improvement Conference (NLIC) was
established under IAR and run until 1991.
 The last Conference was the 4th NLIC, held from 13-15 Nov.
1991, IAR, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
 In 1990 – ESAP was established and the 1st Conference was held
in 1992

1991 – EARO and Regional Agricultural Research Institutions
 IAR – Named EARO in 1991 with Dr. Seifu Ketema as the first DG and Dr.
Zinash Seleshi, the First Director of Livestock Research
 Mandate: To undertake own research and coordinate research programs
across the country.
 EARO developed livestock development strategies for a number of
commodities
 Parallel to this Regional Agricultural Research Intuitions (RARIs) were
established – EARO handed over Hawassa, Mekelle, Adet, Andassa, Bako,
Adami Tulu, etc to their respective regions
 Directors of Livestock Research so far (EARO/EIAR): - Dr. Zinash Sileshi; Dr.
Tesfaye Kumsa; Dr. Getnet Assefa and Dr. Fekede Feyissa

EARO opened up new research programs and
developed implementation strategies in 2000
Aim:
 To contribute to the development of policies and technologies that improve the
livestock sector through improvements in profitability, income distribution,
biological efficiency while maintaining and enhancing biodiversity and natural
resources.
Objectives:
 To provide policy makers with information that facilitate decision making
 To develop technological options to enhance productivity and efficiency
 To identify the existing and alternative livestock production systems
 To increase the export potential of livestock and livestock products while
maintaining national food security

Five Research Themes Across Programs
1. Characterization, description and understanding of the production
systems and of indigenous knowledge.
2. Conservation and utilization of animal and forage genetic resources.
3. Initiation and reinforcing research on post-production processes.
4. Initiate animal biotechnology research at centers
5. With the coordination of Dryland Agriculture Directorate, strengthen
livestock research in pastoral and agro-pastoral systems.

EARO – Nine Research Programs and Strategies
1. Feed Resources and Animal Nutrition Program - with 3 major research
thrusts:
 Animal nutrition
 Range management
 Forage and pasture
2. Animal Health Program
3. Cattle Milk and Meat Program
4. Sheep and Goat Program
5. Poultry Program
6. Apiculture Program
7. Fishery and Other Living Aquatic Species Program
8. Animal Power Program
9. Camel Program

EARO – Research Program Coordination Centres
Research Center Research Program
Adami Tulu Research Center Beef Research
Alemaya University of Agriculture Camel Research
Debre Zeit Research Center Poultry Research
Holetta Research Center Dairy, Animal Power Research, Feeds
and Nutrition Research
Holetta Bee Research Center Apiculture Research
Sebeta Health Research Center Animal Health Research
Sebeta Fishery Research Center Fishery and other living aquatic living
Research
Sheno Research Center Small Ruminant Research

EIAR – Current Research Programs - 10
 Dairy – to improve overall dairy productivity, through generating appropriate
technologies of genotype, feeding, health, product processing, socioeconomics and
marketing and demonstrate successful practice to farmers and different relevant
actors.
 Beef - to tackle inadequate or poor production practices, none specialized system of
production, scarcity of quality feed, inadequate control and prevention of important
animal diseases, inefficient marketing systems, and natural disasters like drought
are critically limiting productivity.
 Shoats - to improve the productivity of the local genetic resources, increase off-
take rates and their contribution to the livelihoods of farmers and pastoralists and
the national economy.
 Camel - to improve production and productivity of camel through improvement of
genotype, feeding, husbandry and health; to improve market, market systems and
market linkages in main pastoral and agro-pastoral areas.

EIAR – Current programs
 Forage and Pasture Crops - Scarcity of feed both in quality and quantity is
one of the major bottlenecks, regardless of agro-ecology or type of
production. However, there is huge potential to improve availability of
feed in quality and quantity.
 Rangelands - to develop and demonstrate appropriate technologies,
knowledge and information of rangeland management, improvement and
utilization practices not only for increased production but also for healthy
functioning sustainability of the entire system.
 Poultry - to generate technology that helps to attain self-sufficiency in
poultry products, increase rural and peri-urban productivity and family
incomes.

EIAR – Current programs
 Fishery – implement prioritized research activities in the major fishery
research centers located in the high fish potential areas including lake
Tana, Arbaminch, Zeway, Hawassa, Koka, Hashengie,etc. The research
program is structured in to two big programs as captured fisheries and
aquaculture.
 Sericulture - to improve silk production and productivity through
development of effective and sustainable technology and information
generation, adoption and dissemination thereby contributing to poverty
alleviation, economic growth, and employment
 Apiculture - Generating, verifying and disseminating efficient and
effective apiculture technologies and knowledge that enhance the
productivity and production, and quality of beekeeping, developing and
promoting beekeeping markets and marketing enabling environments.

EIAR – Livestock Research Staff Profile (no data 1990-2001)
Year (GC) PhD MSc/MvSc DVM BSc Total
2002 11 14 1 4 30
2003 11 16 1 4 32
2004 11 18 1 4 34
2005 11 20 1 7 39
2006 13 22 1 9 45
2007 14 24 1 9 48
2008 17 33 1 11 62
2009 15 52 1 15 83
2010 14 51 2 22 89
2011 15 55 1 23 94
2012 16 67 4 22 109
2013 17 71 4 30 122
2014 17 72 5 25 119
2015 17 72 11 49 149
2016 19 69 12 45 145
2017 21 67 12 43 143
2018 24 68 14 55 161
2019 27 (17.7%) 69 (45.1%) 8 (5.2%) 49 (32.0%) 153
Source: Dr. Fekede Feyissa, Aug. 2019, Personal communication

India: Staff Profile at the National Dairy
Research Institute (NDRI) May 2016
Category Karnal Bangalore Kalyani Total
Scientific 129 23 13 165
Technical 192 30 8 230
Admin 86 7 6 99
Support 375 80 10 465
Total 782 140 37 959

India: NDRI
Divisions Sections
PhD
1 Dairy breeding 5
2 Dairy nutrition 9
3 Physiology 9
4 Dairy chemistry 10
5 Dairy technology 16
6 Animal Biotechnology 11
7 Dairy engineering 9
8 Dairy microbiology 11
9 Dairy extension 10
10 Economics, statistics and
management
7
Total 97 (68 MSc)
1 AI Research Centre
2 Computer Centre
3 Forage Research and Management Centre
4 Technology Business Incubator
5 Livestock Farm
6 Model Dairy Plant
7 Dairy engineering
8 Livestock Production and Management
Note: All EIAR – 27.8% of NDRI PhD holders

Expansion of Universities
 The number of Universities expanded very fast (about 50 public Universities) and
with aspirations of becoming research universities – opened up graduate
programs (MSc and PhD)
 A number of MSc and PhD studies are available in theses or dissertation forms.
 Some have taken up establishment of research Institutions – IPAS (Institute for
Pastoral and Agro-pastoral Studies) and Coordination of National Camel Research
Program at Harmaya
 Animal Biotechnology Research at Addis Ababa University of Technology
 Food Processing Bio-Engineering Program with focus on dairy engineering and
Food Safety with focus on feed and milk under Addis Ababa University

Establishment of the Ethiopian Agricultural
Research Council Secretariat
 EIAR – Proclamation – to undertake research and coordinate
research nationally.
 Similar Proclamations at Regional level created confusion and
conflict.
 Perceived conflict of interest in EIAR
 Led to establishment of the Ethiopian Agricultural Research
Council Secretariat to coordinate national agricultural research.

AHRI and ILCA/ILRI
 AHARI – Focus on animal and human health research
 ILCA – on livestock systems
 ILRI – Some Ethiopian focused projects – IPMS, LIVES, ADDG,
ACCG, AfricaRISING, etc. A lot of capacity development
 Issues
 Lack of complementarity; Competition?
 Brain Drain or Brain Gain?
 Lack of coordination and joint planning

Chronic Issues in the research system
 Biased attitude and wrong mind-set to livestock at all levels - 53 years of
formal agricultural research
 Poor Recruitment, Retention and Reward system (3Rs); not focused on the
critical issue of human capital; Lack of incentive and recognition
 Shortage of qualified staff in different disciplines – disproportional to the
resources
 Weak leadership, poor human resources development and
compartmentalization
 Poor budget allocation and lack of transparency
 Poor/old laboratory equipment and shortage of supplies and vehicles
 Weak repair and maintenance
 Weak and poorly paid support staff (administrative and research support)
and services – lab, field, procurement, finance, storage, transport, etc

Chronic…….
 Poor animal research facilities, shortage of research animals,
cost of up-keep of research animals, etc
 Lack of continuity and sustainability, focus on research projects
rather than programs
 High staff turn-over, particularly senior staff
 Poor data storage and management – personal property, quality,
continuity, lack of central repository, repetition and redundancy
 Poor Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning
 Poor performance appraisal system and lack of accountability
 None-existence of external reviews.
 Poor mentoring and coaching system and weak succession plan

Some Development Institutions – Crops vs Livestock
Crops Livestock
Fertilizer Agency Yes No, pasture, feed,
Seed Enterprises Yes No, forage, livestock
germplasm
Multiplication centres Yes No, some ranches (failed)
???

Lessons and Future Scenario in Livestock
 As people get richer, they will eat more meat and live longer, healthier lives
 In China, annual pork production increased by 30-fold since 1960s, to 55m
tonnes and annual meat consumption increased from 4 to 62kg (1961 to 2013).
 By 2050, global ruminants will rise from 4.1bn to 5.8bn, current population of
chickens (23 bn) is expected to grow even faster (FAO) .
 In India, milk production shot up from 20m tonnes in 1970 to 174m tonnes in
2018, making India the world’s biggest milk producer. India will produce 244m
tonnes of milk in 2027.
 Developing countries will drive global rise in consumption of animal products

Lessons and Future Scenario in livestock
 Africa has 23% of the world’s cattle but produces 10% of the world’s beef and
just 5% of milk.
 In Senegal the number of chicken has increased from 24m to 60m since 2000.
 Many SSA still eat almost no meat, dairy or fish. About 7% of the dietary energy
comes from animal products, one-third of the proportion in China.
 SSA population will reach 2bn in the 2040s, up from 1.1bn today (UN).
 This would lead to a huge increase in meat- and dairy-eating. For example, the
population of Kenya has grown by 58% since 2000, while the output of beef has
more than doubled.

Future scenario in livestock: Lessons
 In 2050, two out of five ruminants in the world will be in Africa.
 In Ethiopia, 38% of children are stunted. In Kenya children who
regularly ate eggs grew 5% faster than children who did not.
 Africans’ changing diets also create opportunities for local
businesses. Supply chains become bigger and more sophisticated.
 People will respond to markets and use commercial feed, a pull
factor for crop development.
 In Nigeria, the amount of maize used for animal-feed shot up from
300,000 tonnes to 1.8m tonnes between 2003 and 2015.

What will be the trend…in Ethiopia?
 Between 1970 and 2010 (40 years) the number of livestock raised
for global human consumption (FAO)
 Beef cattle rose 32% to reach 1.4 billion,
 Pigs rose 76% to reach 965 million, and
 Chickens rose 273% to reach 19.4 billion.

Risk- ILRI Study on Zoonotic Diseases
 Around 70% of all infectious diseases are zoonotic, moving from animals—
usually livestock—to humans, through either contact or consumption.
 ILRI estimates that 2.7 million people die from zoonotic diseases each year,
while approximately 2.5 billion people get sick.
 Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania in Africa, as well as India in Asia, have the
highest zoonotic disease burdens, with widespread illness and death.
 North-eastern United States, Western Europe (especially UK), Brazil and
Southeast Asia may be hotspots of ’emerging zoonoses’—those that are
newly infecting humans, are newly virulent, or have newly become drug
resistant.

Challenges
 Strong and sharp increase in domestic demand
 Increasing opportunities for export – new and under-served countries, but strong
and tight requirements and regulations on quality, safety, traceability
 Strong concern on zoonotic diseases and strong position on animal welfare issues
 Strong position on environmental footprints of livestock (land, feed, water, gases)
 Increasing challenges from vegetarians, vegans, environmentalists, technological/
laboratory produced animal products, etc.
 Increasing demand/hunting for animal, forage and microbial genetic resources in
developing countries – e.g. About 9 million dairy cows in the US share Y
chromosomes from only two bulls!!

Opportunities for Ethiopia
 Huge livestock resource
 A number of RARIs; public and private universities, and ATVETs
 UN, NGOs (GIZ) and international institutions (FAO, ILRI) working on various aspects of
livestock research and development
 Ministry of Health on child and maternal nutrition
 Ministries of Health and Education jointly working on school feeding programs
 First Lady’s Office working on child and school feeding programs
 Development of Livestock Masterplan and GTP, Establishment of State Ministry of Livestock
 Climate Resilient and Green Economy (CRGE)
 Establishment of EMDIDI under Ministry of Trade and Industry
 Approval of Breeding Policy; Establishment of NAGII; Draft Dairy Board; Completion of
livestock commodity development strategies, job creation for the youth programs, etc.
 Development of Integrated Agro-industrial Parks (IAIP)
 A number of donors interested in development of the livestock sector (WB; AfDB; BMGF; etc.)
 Increasing private sector investment in the livestock sector
 New market opportunities – e.g. China; other African countries, etc.
 Increasing number of university graduates in animal production and veterinary medicine

Prospects
 Review all publications every 5 years. Eg. Azage Tegegne. 1998. Who is publishing on what subject in ESAP? Trends
in Animal Science Research in Ethiopia. ESAP, May 14-15, 1998, About 21 years – no follow-up on this!!
 Economists - analyse and advise on human resources, budget allocation for research
 Strengthen multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional research
 Focus on commodity value chain development than technology development
 Target profitability and not just productivity
 Focus on indigenous genetic resources – livestock, feeds, fish, microbes, etc
 Address various production systems – pastoral/agro-pastoral, crop-livestock, urban & peri-urban, large commercial
 Attach a strong capacity development component for sustainability
 Establish and adhere to a proper staff recruitment, retention and reward system (3Rs)
 Input and output quality, safety and traceability will become crucial
 Concerns of zoonotic diseases and anti-microbial resistance
 Strong program on impact of climate change on livestock and livestock on the environment, adaptation, biological
efficiency, etc
 Animal Welfare issue – Management, housing, feeding and watering, humane handling and product processing
 Strategic partnerships – Universities, research and development, and
 Be competitive and attract external funding

My Dream: ESAP @ End of GTP III - 2025
ESAP HQ

The past is all gone, and the only good thing about it is
you learn from it!!