Gebregziabher Gebreyohannes

Dr Gebregziabher is a senior scientist in quantitative animal geneticist/animal breeder and Africa Asia dairy genetic gains project coordinator. He joined ILRI in 2020 and is currently based in Nairobi. Gebregziabher served as a state minister of the Ethiopian Ministry of agriculture and Ministry of Livestock and Fishery (2013-2020) and member of ILRI Board of Truste (2016-2020) representing his country, Ethiopia. Before he joined the Ministry of Agriculture, he served the national research system at different levels (researcher, director and director general) for more than 20 years. Gebregziabher has also served Land O’Lakes Inc (2005-2008) as a project coordinator. He graduated his BSC and MSc degree in the field of animal science from Haromaya University, Ethiopia, and his PhD in animal breeding from Kasetsart University, Bangkok Thailand. During his MSc study, he was a graduate fellow at the International Livestock Research Institute (1999-2001). My research work mainly focuses on dairy genetic improvements and dairy value chain development. I have a wealth of experience in research, extension, development and policy related to livestock. My current research work focusses on establishing or revamping a national dairy breeding program that utilizes genomic technology and information communication to select adaptable high yielding resilient dairy cattle that suits the smallholder production system. I am also interested in establishing a livestock identification and traceability system that supports genetic improvement, heard health, disease control and certification of breeding animals. I like to translate the research outputs to policy briefs to influence policy and research briefs and manuals to bring impact at different levels of the dairy value chain.