Haramaya University-College of Agriculture

Vision Mission Undergraduate Programs Departments Special Program Graduate Programs Research and Extension Future Plan

The New College Of Agriculture Building

1. Establishment and Major Developments

To this effect, in 1950 Oklahoma Agriculture and Mechanical College (OAMC) president, Dr. Henry G.Bennett, visited Ethiopia upon Emperor H/Selassie’s invitation to explore the possibility of establishing an agricultural college. After assessing the then educational programs, he proposed the dire need for an agricultural college which was enthusiastically accepted by the Emperor. In fact, Dr. Bennett was appointed in December 1950 to preside over the process of establishing the would be agricultural college; unfortunately, Dr. Bennett passed away in an airplane crash on a similar mission in the Middle East in the following year.

On June 16, 1951 Ethiopia signed an agreement with Point Four Technical Cooperation, USA, and on May 16, 1952 an agreement between the Technical Cooperation Administration (TCA) and Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College was signed to carry out the foundation of an agricultural college/university in Ethiopia on behalf of the US Government. On August 17, 1952 an advance group of six senior staff members of Oklahoma State University (OSU) arrived in Addis Ababa to set in motion the program. First, the Jimma Agricultural and Technical School was opened with eight students on October 15,1952 to serve mainly as a source of the future college enrollees and as an interim site for the would be Imperial Ethiopian College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts (IECAMA), later called Alemaya College of Agriculture (ACA). Both high school and college education in agricultural sciences started in Jimma premises. Then the first college classes began in September 1953 with an intake of fourteen freshman students from those who had completed high school courses in agriculture from Jimma. After the first batch attended their college classes in Jimma as well as in Addis Ababa premises, they were transferred to Alemaya Campus in 1956, and eleven students completed their studies in the summer of 1957, and were granted BSc degrees in general agriculture at a convocation ceremony held on the new premises, Alemaya Campus, in January 1958. In fact, Emperor H/Selassie I inaugurated Alemaya campus in the same month, January 1958.

The Alemaya College of Agriculture functioned as a chartered member of the Addis Ababa University until May 27, 1985 when it was upgraded to a full-fledged University of Agriculture. Then, after three decades of rich experience, Alemaya University of Agriculture was further upgraded to a multi-disciplinary University in 1996, and it was renamed as Alemaya University (AU) in 1996 and Haramaya University (HU) in 2006. As a result, the College of Agriculture resumed functioning as one College of the Haramaya University.

2. Vision

The vision of the College of Agriculture is to be a center of excellence in teaching, research and community service in agriculture in Ethiopia by efficient utilization of available resources.

3. Mission

The mission of the College of Agriculture is to produce highly qualified agricultural professionals through rigorous theoretical and practical education and to develop and disseminate problem solving agricultural production technologies through conducting demand-driven research in Ethiopia.

4. Academic Programs

After Alemaya College of Agriculture was upgraded to a full-fledged university, the Faculty of Forestry was launched in 1987 with a training program at the BSc level till its transfer to Wendo-Genet Forestry Institute in the mid 1990s. Then a new BSc program in agricultural extension was started under the College of Agriculture in 1994. The University, being the only Agricultural University in the country, indeed played a significant role in the training of agriculturalists in various fields at Diploma, BSc and MSc levels.

The College currently has the following departments:

Special Programs – The Mid-Career Extension

In addition, currently in this college, there are 17 graduate programs that are offered in different fields of agriculture.

2.2. Graduate Programs

The then Alemaya College of Agriculture had made great strides in the Ethiopianization of the staff between 1960 and 1974. However, the college suffered a great loss of staff after the revolution due to the departure of expatriate staff, the resignation of Ethiopian staff because of appointments to government posts, and the disappearance of others. Those who were on training abroad were also very reluctant to return. Regarding staff development, a bold and determined measure was taken during the 1979/1980 academic year to start a graduate program, under the supervision of Addis Ababa University.

In fact, the main purpose of the graduate program was to alleviate the acute shortage of academic staff. This was aimed at saving foreign exchange required to employ expatriate expertise. It has also been helping to train high-level manpower with leadership qualities for the different government institutions and development agencies. In the summer of 1978/79, the Graduate Programs were moved from Addis Ababa University to the then Alemaya Campus. In 1985 Alemaya University of Agriculture established its own School of Graduate Studies, and the University has been the only higher institution in Ethiopia that has been offering MSc training in the fields of agriculture. In a short time, the University has established an internationally recognized Graduate Program. Indeed, a total of 567 students have graduated with Masters Degrees in various fields of agriculture up to 2004. In addition to the M.Sc program, the Haramaya University has launched Ph.D. programs in various fields of agriculture since 2002.

5. Research and Extension

As of its establishment, the three mandates of the College were training of skilled manpower, promotion of research, and extension. The same remains to be the basis of the education system at Haramaya University today. As of its establishment, the College had the national mandate for both agricultural research and extension and served the nation in this capacity until these mandates were transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR) in 1963 and 1966, respectively.

The mission of the agricultural research and extension of COA is to strengthen and increase the efficiency of agricultural research and extension in its mandate areas; and facilitate the achievement of economic growth, food security and export competitiveness through productive and sustainable agriculture. Towards this end, the overall objective is to strengthen research, technology generation, information exchange and developmental activities for improved and sustainable agricultural production in Ethiopia.

The research programs of the University are designed to help the achievement of the objectives and the accomplishment of the missions. In line with this, priority research programs and projects are designed and implemented in areas that are believed to improve the economic returns to farmers and raise their living standards.

At present, the University’s research and extension activities operate under the umbrella of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR).

The current research programs include:

6. Future Plan

In its efforts to continue its expansion in training, research and extension to meet the needs of Ethiopia through its activities, the College of Agriculture strategic plan calls for new academic programs that will start in the near future. Preparations are underway to commence BSc Programs in Crop Science, Plant Protection, and Natural Resource Management. The College is also preparing to start MSc Degree programs in Agricultural Machinery, Food Engineering, Food Science and Technology, Integrated Pest Management, Dairy Science, Poultry Science and Seed Science and Technology and Ph.D. Programs in Agricultural Entomology and Soil and Water Engineering.

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