By Abdirahman Ibrahim Abdillahi
For more than seven decades, the agricultural research station at Bishoftu has worked on the crops, livestock and technologies that underpin Ethiopia’s food security. A recent visit by the Somaliland Institute of Agricultural Research highlights the growing importance of knowledge-sharing across the Horn of Africa.
Just outside Addis Ababa, in the agricultural landscape of Bishoftu, a research institution has spent decades working on a question central to Ethiopia’s future: how can farmers produce more food with limited land, water and other resources?
The institution historically associated with the Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center (DZARC) is one of Ethiopia’s oldest agricultural research institutions. It operates within the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), the country’s national agricultural research system.
Its importance lies not simply in its age, but in the breadth of the problems it has tackled.
From experiment station to national research centre
Over the decades, research at Debre Zeit has expanded from experimental agriculture into a multidisciplinary programme covering crops, livestock, natural resources and agricultural technology.
Its areas of work include teff, durum wheat, chickpea, lentils, poultry, dairy, animal health, biotechnology, seed development, technology adoption and agricultural extension.
The work is largely invisible to the public.
Farmers rarely see the breeding plots, laboratories or controlled experiments behind a new variety. Yet those activities can determine whether a crop survives a disease outbreak, performs better under drought or produces a harvest suitable for a growing market.
Agricultural research, therefore, is ultimately less about laboratories than about what reaches the farmer’s field.
Teff at the centre.Few crops illustrate the importance of the center more clearly than Teff.The tiny-grained cereal is a staple of Ethiopian diets and a crop of major cultural and economic importance. Research has focused on improving yield, lodging resistance, adaptation and grain quality.
Ethiopia’s national teff research programme has released numerous improved varieties, including Quncho, which became widely adopted.Researchers continue to work on varieties and production practices suited to different environments and changing climatic conditions.
Research on teff is not simply a search for higher yields.
Scientists must balance productivity with characteristics valued by farmers and consumers: maturity, grain colour, market preference, resistance to lodging and adaptation to different growing conditions.
That challenge has become more urgent as farmers face increasingly unpredictable weather and pressure on land and other resources.
Beyond teff: pulses and wheat
The research portfolio at Bishoftu extends well beyond Ethiopia’s best-known grain.
Chickpea and lentil are among the center’s major areas of work. Research has addressed yield, disease resistance, maturity and market requirements, including varieties suited to different production environments.
Pulses matter beyond the farm. They contribute to household nutrition and have become important sources of income and export earnings.
Wheat research is another major component.
Durum wheat has particular significance for Ethiopia’s expanding pasta and food-processing industries, while bread wheat research has focused heavily on disease resistance. The development and testing of varieties capable of withstanding serious wheat diseases is part of a broader effort to protect national food production from biological and climatic shocks.
Where crops meet livestock
Agriculture is not only about crops.
Research at Debre Zeit also covers poultry, dairy production, small ruminants, animal health, nutrition and biotechnology. The aim is to make livestock production more productive and better suited to the conditions faced by smallholder farmers.
Poultry research has focused on identifying and improving breeds and production systems suitable for Ethiopian conditions. Dairy research has explored improved management and reproductive technologies, while animal nutrition research examines how locally available resources can be used more efficiently.
The center has also developed research capacity in biotechnology, including work involving plants, animals and microorganisms.
Somaliland and Ethiopia: sharing agricultural knowledge
The regional importance of agricultural research was underscored by a recent visit to Bishoftu by a delegation from the Somaliland Institute of Agricultural Research (SIAR).
Led by the Executive Director of SIAR, the delegation visited the Bishoftu agricultural research facilities to exchange knowledge, share ideas and learn from Ethiopia’s experience in agricultural research and technology development.
The visit provided an opportunity for researchers and agricultural professionals to discuss areas of mutual interest and consider how research institutions in the Horn of Africa can learn from one another.
For Somaliland, where agriculture and livestock remain important to rural livelihoods and food security, exposure to Ethiopia’s long experience in crop improvement, livestock research, seed development and agricultural technology offers potential lessons.
For Ethiopian researchers, engagement with counterparts from Somaliland provides another opportunity to understand the agricultural realities of a neighbouring part of the Horn and to exchange experiences on shared challenges.
Those challenges cross borders.
Farmers throughout the Horn face climate variability, water scarcity, soil degradation, crop pests, livestock diseases and pressure to produce more food with limited resources. Research institutions may therefore benefit from exchanging technologies, approaches and lessons rather than working in isolation.
The SIAR visit illustrates how agricultural science can serve not only national development but also regional cooperation.
Research that has to leave the laboratory
A scientific breakthrough has little value if it never reaches farmers.
That is why technology transfer has become an important part of agricultural research. Researchers develop or identify promising technologies, test them under different conditions, evaluate their performance and work through the national system for approval, release and dissemination. Seed multiplication and agricultural extension are then essential if farmers are to gain access to the results.
This is where research meets economics.
A variety that performs well in a research plot but is expensive to produce, difficult to obtain or poorly matched to market demand may have limited impact. Agricultural innovation depends not only on biology, but also on seed systems, markets, extension services and farmer preferences.
Preparing for a harder climate
The future may make this work even more important.
Ethiopian agriculture remains exposed to weather variability, while farmers face pressures from soil degradation, water scarcity, pests and diseases.
Natural-resource research includes work on soil and water management, while the wider agricultural research system is increasingly incorporating climate-smart approaches and new technologies for monitoring crops and agricultural conditions.
These challenges are shared across the Horn of Africa, making regional research cooperation increasingly important.
A national legacy with a regional role
The significance of Bishoftu’s agricultural research legacy is therefore measured not only by varieties released or experiments conducted.
Its deeper contribution is institutional.
For generations, researchers, technicians, students and extension professionals have worked through its programmes. Research priorities have evolved with Ethiopia’s needs—from increasing agricultural productivity to improving export crops, strengthening livestock systems, developing biotechnology and responding to climate and environmental pressures.
The recent engagement with the Somaliland Institute of Agricultural Research adds another dimension to that legacy: the possibility of agricultural institutions across the Horn learning from one another.
The challenges facing farmers in the region are often shared, and so too can be the search for solutions.
The work behind the harvest
For most people, agricultural research is encountered indirectly.
It may appear as a teff variety that produces a better harvest, a chickpea that withstands disease, wheat that survives a major outbreak, a chicken that provides additional income, or a farming practice that helps conserve scarce soil and water.
Behind each outcome is a long chain of research, testing, breeding, adaptation and extension.
That is the significance of the Bishoftu agricultural research legacy.
The center is not simply a collection of laboratories and experimental fields outside Addis Ababa. It is part of the scientific infrastructure behind Ethiopia’s food system—a place where researchers work on problems that ultimately affect farmers, consumers and the wider economy.And its significance increasingly extends beyond Ethiopia.
As researchers from institutions such as the Somaliland Institute of Agricultural Research (SIAR) and Ethiopian research centres exchange knowledge and ideas, agricultural science can become a bridge across the Horn of Africa—linking institutions that face different national circumstances but many of the same agricultural challenges.
The crops may change. The technologies will certainly change.But the central question remains the same: how can the region produce more food, strengthen agricultural livelihoods and make farming more resilient to a changing climate?
At Bishoftu, that question has been the subject of scientific work for generations. Increasingly, it is also a question that researchers across the Horn are being invited to answer together.
