Jijiga inaugurates ultra-modern agriculture research center

04/01/08
    

The Jijiga Agriculture Research Center that intends to benefit the pastoralist and agro-pastoralist community through generating and adopting improved agriculture technologies was inaugurated on Sunday.

The Center was constructed with nearly three million USD obtained from the International Fund for Agriculture Development.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, State Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Abera Deressa said that the Ethiopian government has given proper attention towards installing strong research system in the agriculture sector.

The government is supporting agriculture research institutions, particularly in disadvantaged states, as part of the derive to materialize the national strategy set in the sector.

The State Minister also urged researchers in the sector to focus on demand driven researches.

Inaugurating the center, Minister of Culture and Tourism, Ambassador Mohamoud Dirir said that retaining researchers and coordination among research and higher learning institutions is essential in an effort to register better result in the sector.

The necessary attention should also be given to making use of research outputs released by research institutions, he added.

Also on the occasion Director General of the Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture Research, Dr. Solomon Assefa said that the center is expected to contribute a lot in delivering improved technologies and conducting researches that are meant to improve the livelihood of the pastoralist and semi pastoralist community.

Director of the Agriculture Research and Training Project (ARTP), Dr. Asfaw Zeleke, in his presentation that touched the genesis of the newly built center, underlined that the center is expected to contribute for the national agriculture development plan by conducting ecologically sound researches.

The center, constructed through a bilateral agreement between the FDRE and the International Fund for Agriculture Development, comprises administration block, residential units, library, laboratory, research department and other facilities.

ENA