Summary of Qualifications and Professional Experience
Adugna Tolera is an animal scientist specialized in animal feeds and nutrition with 35+ years of experience in teaching, research and outreach activities.
His degrees include BSc in Agriculture (Animal Science) from Alemaya College of Agriculture, Addis Ababa University (1983), MSc in Animal Science (1990) and PhD in Animal Nutrition (1999) from Agricultural University of Norway. In addition, he had short term research experiences at Rowett Research Institute, UK (June-September 1994), Langston University, USA (July-December 2000), Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway (October 2004-August 2005) and Scotland’s Rural College, UK (for none month each in 2013 and 2014). From December 2007 to September 2011, he worked for Texas A&M University as Livestock Production Specialist for the Ethiopia Sanitary & Phytosanitary Standards and Livestock & Meat Marketing Program (SPS-LMM), which was implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture. From November 1, 2016 up to April 30, 2017 he worked as a re-engaged senior researcher at Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) with key responsibilities of leading preparation of Animal Feeds and Nutrition Research Strategy for 15 years (2016-2030), preparation of training modules as well as training and mentoring of junior researchers.
Adugna currently serves as a professor of Animal Nutrition in the School of Animal and Range Sciences, Hawassa University. His research and development work experience focuses on animal feeds and nutrition, livestock production systems, feedlot design and management, feeding and management of meat and dairy animals, nutrition-health interaction, sustainable intensification of mixed crop-livestock production, rangeland management and climate change. He provides consultancy services to different international and national organizations in the areas of livestock production, feed resources and feeding systems, establishment of research and laboratory facilities, feedlot design and management, climate change, feed resources conservation, feed quality and safety regulations, rangeland management and project evaluation. Besides his academic and research carrier, Adugna has several years of experience working across the whole spectrum of livestock value chain through provision of training and advisory services to smallholder farmers and pastoralists, feedlot operators, commercial dairy farmers, cooperatives, and feed producers and processors as well as development workers at various levels. Some of the organizations for which he provided consultancy services include Texas A&M University for the SPS-LMM Project, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA) based in Washington DC for L-MIRA Project of the World Bank in Nigeria and Tanzania, CNFA implemented Livestock Market Development Project in Ethiopia, ACDI/VOCA FEED Project, ILRI, ICARDA, FAO Ethiopia, The World Bank Ethiopia and Nigeria Offices, IGAD etc. He has a rich experience in organizing, facilitating and conducting short term training programs for different target groups and on different subjects. He also gives invited presentations and keynote speeches on various professional workshops, conferences and symposia. He has published over 100 scientific publications in peer reviewed scientific journals, international and national workshop proceedings/book chapters, and books or monographs and manuals.
He also served as a member of different national working groups and successfully chaired a national task force entrusted with the responsibility of assessing the feed resources situation in Ethiopia, which was published in 2012 as “Livestock Feed Resources in Ethiopia: Challenges, Opportunities and the Need for Transformation”. He was a member of the expert group who developed “Feed supplementation guidelines” for pastoral areas of Ethiopia during drought emergencies. He is serving as a regular reviewer for several peer reviewed international scientific journals and as a reviewer for the National Research Foundation (NRF) of the Republic of South Africa for evaluation and rating of researchers and research proposals to be funded by the Foundation. He is the current Editor-in-Chief for Ethiopian Journal of Animal Production, which is published by the Ethiopian Society of Animal Production. In addition, he is a member of Editorial Advisory Board for Science, Technology and Arts Research Journal, Journal of Science and Sustainable Development and Journal of Science and Development.
On top of his teaching, research and outreach activities, he had served in different management positions at the University, including Associate Vice President for Research and Extension (2005-2007), Coordinator of Continuing Education Program (1999-2004) and Head of Animal Science department (1991-1993). He had also coordinated and managed different internationally funded and multidisciplinary projects. Currently he is managing three international collaborative research projects funded by international organizations including the International Atomic Energy Agency, USAID and the Gates foundation and implemented in collaboration with different universities and research organizations across the globe. He is also a sub-component leader in German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) funded Climate Change and Food Security (CLIFOOD) Project. In addition, he has recently established research and academic exchange collaboration with Nanjing Agricultural University in China.
Prof. Adugna is a Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and a member of Ethiopian Society of Animal Production and Ethiopian Veterinary Association, and Steering Committee member for Pasture and Rangeland Forum Ethiopia (PaRFE). He is a member of Technical Advisory Board to the Ethiopian Animal Feed Industry Association, Chairman of Feed safety Counsel for the Veterinary Drug and Animal Feed Administration and Control Authority, Board member of SOS Sahel Ethiopia and Board chairman of Society for Education, Environment and Development (SEED).
