Haramaya University’s Administrative Board awards the rank of full professorship in Animal Production and Management to Dr. Mohammed Yousuf Kurtu, on December 24, 2019.
Dr. Mohammed Yousuf Kurtu was born on January 1st, 1957 in a village called Badro-beri in Harar City. When he was a young kid, he went to a nearby traditional preschool called Gey Kuran gey Medrasa, where he got the knowledge of reading Quran and a little insight about some basics on Islamic religion and practices. Later on, he moved with his family to Haramaya town where he attended his primary school at the Swedish Mission School. After completing his primary school, he moved to Agricultural College Students Dependent School (AGICS) for his junior secondary school at Bate. After completing his junior secondary school, he transferred to Harar Medhanialem Comprehensive Secondary school and attended Commerce section (1968 -1972/73). In 1972/73 he joined the then Haile Selassie I University College of Agriculture and graduated with a BSc degree in Agricultural Science majoring in Animal Science in 1981. After completing his studies, he immediately got employed by Arsi Rural Development Unit (ARDU) as an animal specialist and later on he was promoted to a head of animal research section. The ARDU project was basically an integrated and comprehensive rural development unit supported by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). After 3 years of service at ARDU, he got a SIDA scholarship and obtained MSc degree in Animal Nutrition and Management from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden in 1985. After obtaining the master’s degree he went back to ARDU and resumed his research and agriculture related development activities for a total of 16 years. During the period, he got opportunities to acquire an in-depth understanding of traditional agriculture practices, problems associated with farmers’ perception of agricultural innovations and various methods of implementations of research findings at farmers’ levels.
In 1996, Dr. Mohammed joined Haramaya University as a teaching staff in the Department of Animal Science in a Lecturer position. Later on, in 2000 he promoted to a rank of Assistant Professor. After 5 successful years of service at Haramaya University, he got a scholarship and went to the University of Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa and received PhD degree in Dairy Production Systems 2003.
Dr. Mohammed has served Haramaya University in teaching, research, community and outreach services for more than 22 years. He has devoted his life to research and teaching activities and involved in project formulation, advisory work, execution, and implementation of various research findings, development and training activities in agricultural sectors.
Dr. Mohammed is an eminent Animal scientist. He has so far been a major and a co-advisor of 66 masters and 9 doctoral students. He has also been serving as an external and internal examiner for many students nationwide. He’s is a prolific scientist in his career, publishing a total of 97 scientific papers as a main and /or a co-author that includes 67 articles on scientific journals, 12 proceedings and has prepared more than 18 development oriented reports. His scientific publications cover a wider range of livestock species with various functions includes camel, cattle, small ruminants, equines and chicken productions.
Apart from teaching and research endeavors, Dr. Mohammed has served the University in various leadership positions and committee memberships. He has been a member of the Editorial Board of “The Alemayan” Year Book (1994), member of the Committee established for running the Community Children School (1994-1997), Faculty Scholarship and Promotion Committee (1998-2000), member of Committee assigned for evaluating and restructuring the AUA farms (Documents were produced), National Camel research (2008), assistant coordinator for Danish supported Camel dairy project (2012-2017) His other professional memberships and associations also include membership and active participation in the Ethiopian Society of Animal Production (ESAP) and International Society of Camel-lid Research and Development (ISOCARD).
In carrying out all his assignments during his career and studies, Dr. Mohammed has cut across the barriers of various unfavorable academic milieu; developed trust and good working relations with a range of stakeholders; extracted, reviewed and compiled data; drafted various background papers, concept and briefing notes, and analytical reports for high-level officials, among others. He has also lived in and traveled to different parts of the world with the opportunity to study, attend professional associations, taking part in short-term trainings and network and socialize with people of very diverse backgrounds and outlooks.
Currently, Dr. Mohammed is an Associate professor of Animal Science at Haramaya University. He expressed his deep gratitude to his family members, colleagues, students and Haramaya University’s Management Board who have been directly or indirectly involved throughout his relentless academic journey.