Haramaya University Hosts International Project Management Meeting
Haramaya University hosted an international project management meeting on November 17-18, 2024, at its Main Campus.
The 2nd Project Management Meeting of BREEDTECH, an initiative focused on advancing plant breeding and biotechnology education and research in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, brought together experts from Italy, Sweden, Palestine, Kenya, and Ethiopia.
The two-day event focused on the implementation of the BREEDTECH project, which aims to increase crop production in a sustainable manner.
Dr. Abdi Mohammed, Co-PI of the project and HU's Vice President for Administration & Development, emphasized the meeting's goal of evaluating progress and charting the future direction of BREEDTECH.
Participants explored strategies to strengthen capacity building, foster international collaborations, and promote innovative research in plant breeding and biotechnology.
Dr. Abdi noted that the project, implemented in collaboration with European Universities, will benefit six institutions in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Palestine, including Haramaya and Oda Bultum Universities.
Prof. Mukitar Mohammad, President of Oda Bultum University, highlighted the importance of transforming agriculture through increased productivity achieved by utilizing improved crop varieties. He emphasized the significance of the BREEDTECH project in developing skilled human resources and acquiring valuable experiences.
Dr. Miriam Charinbu, the chief coordinator of the BREEDTECH project, underscored the meeting's role in providing essential resources for finalizing the curriculum designed to teach plant breeding science.
Reporter: Shemsedin Mohammad
Photographer: Tewodros Lishan
Haramaya University Public and International Relations Directorate
==================== Second Meeting =======================
BREEDTECH is European Union funded project for Capacity Building that stands for “Building Capacity in Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Education and Research through Partnership Program in Africa, Middle East and Europe for Agricultural Transformation” through Erasmus+.
The project aims to build the capacity of students, researchers and academic staff in education and research in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe in the area of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology.
BREEDTECH is a three year cross regional project which has brought together a consortium of HEIs and a firm from Kenya, Ethiopia, Palestine, Italy, Sweden, and Serbia to implement four main work packages aiming to improve the contents of courses and curriculums, the skills and competence levels of 12 students and 24 academic staff in teaching and research activities from African and Palestinian universities. Throughout, the project is expected to improve agricultural technologies for better productivity, sustainability, environmental safety by developing and upgrading research centres and laboratories in the HEIs.
Haramaya University is collaborated with other Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of the consortium as a key participant with defined work package in the project. On the kick-off meeting, Haramaya University is represented by Dr. Abdi Mohammed (Vice President for Administration and Development and PI of the project), Dr. Alok Kumar and Mr. Tullu Tadessa as members of the project.
Adjacently, Dr. Abdi and Mr. Tullu also presented the progress of two on-going projects and discussed on the way forward for one newly awarded project in collaboration with Egerton University with the fund from OeAD (Cooperation Development Research and Africa UniNet).
