Dr. Fekadu Beyene was born on April 16, 1972 G.C. in a village called Buri, 5 km away from Alibo Town. He attended primary and secondary school at Alibo Yetigil Fire, located in Jarte Jardega Woreda, East Wollega Zone. He also attended high school education at Shambu Town between 1985/86 to 1988/89 G.C. Then, in 1989/90 he joined the then Haramaya University of Agriculture. He graduated from the University in August 1993 in Agricultural Economics. Soon after graduation he was employed as a graduate assistant in the Department of Agricultural Extension. After serving the university for one and half years, he obtained a scholarship to attend MSc training at Wageningen University in the Netherlands and received Master’s Degree in June 1997 in the field of Management of Agricultural Knowledge Systems. After his return from Wageningen, he has been teaching various courses in the College of Agriculture for five and half years. In September 2003, he obtained scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to pursue PhD study at Humboldt University of Berlin in Germany and received terminal degree in January 2008 in the field of Institutional and Resource Economics. The title of his dissertation research was “Challenges and Options in Governing Common Property: customary institutions among pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in Ethiopia” and graduated with a great distinction.
Dr Fekadu has been teaching different courses and conducted research on different issues of pastoral systems including sustainable land management, customary pastoral land administration, food security and land use systems, climate change and pastoral adaptations and natural resource-based conflict. He also supervised over 40 Masters and 6 PhD students who worked on sustainable watershed management, collective action in forest management, the influence of settlement on rangeland ecosystems and livelihoods, the impact of climate change on fisheries, challenges in the management of wildlife sanctuaries and related conflicts between conservation interventions and local livelihoods. He has been encouraging postgraduate students to publish their work. Dr Fekadu has obtained research grants from the following organizations: International Foundation for Science, Drylands Coordination Groups, Centre for International Governance Innovation, and Centre for World Food Studies. A number of articles were published from these research activities. He provided a number of consultancy services for different organizations including Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), World Food Program (WFP), Tetra-Tech ARD, Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA), IGAD and UNDP. As a visiting scholar, he also taught postgraduate courses (such as Institutional and Behavioural Economics as well as Environmental Economics) in the regional MSc Programs run by the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC).
After serving the university for four years as assistant professor, Dr Fekadu Beyene was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor in July 2012. In addition to teaching and research, he has participated in provision of training for practitioners working in various organizations on diverse topics such as natural resource conflict management, gender, agriculture and natural resources and participatory watershed management. He coordinated the implementation of a number of externally funded projects. As a result of his continued engagement in teaching and research, he has published 46 journal articles, 3 discussion papers, 1 training manual and 2 book chapters.
Dr Fekadu served Haramaya University in various leadership positions as a Department Head between 2002 and 2003, as a Director for the Institute of Pastoral and Agro-pastoral Studies between 2008 and May 2012 and as a Vice President for Administration and Student Affairs between June 2012 and March 2016.
Considering his achievements and contributions to development of the society, Haramaya University’s Senate and Administrative Board have promoted him to the rank of full professor in Institutional and Resource Economics.