It is with pride that we announce the induction of Dr. Aynalem Haile, ICARDA Principal Scientist and Small Ruminant Breeder, as a Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Haile has contributed to Ethiopia’s national and international research in animal genetic resources for over 25 years. Notably, he has led an innovative and successful approach to sheep and goat breeding for low input systems known as community-based breeding programs (CBBP). Through CBBP, farmers are trained to improve selection methods, community flocks are pooled to enlarge the gene pool from which breeding sires can be selected, a recording system monitors the performance of individual animals, and the knowledge is shared widely, leading to continuous genetic improvement of community herds. CBBP has gained recognition for improving herds, and food and nutrition security, for hundreds of communities of livestock smallholders in Ethiopia and throughout the Global South.
Dr. Haile’s work is now being honored by the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences, a prestigious society of scholars founded in 2010 to promote the sciences and bring about development, prosperity, and improved health for the people of Ethiopia. In inducting Dr. Haile as a Fellow, the Academy wrote that they act “in recognition of your impressive research record, your outstanding contribution to your profession, your international stature as a scholar and your service to the community at large.”
As the author or co-author of more than 286 publications, Dr. Haile has numerous research interests in the sustainable management of animal genetic resources. He has dedicated his career to bettering livelihoods through participatory approaches to improved livestock production, in recent years with the support of the CGIAR Research Program (CRP) on Livestock and Fish, its successor CRP Livestock, and their donors.
We thank the Academy for electing one of our most dedicated scientists. This induction honors ICARDA’s pathbreaking science in small ruminant breeding and health, and the ways in which this science is changing the lives of Ethiopian farmers, strengthening their livelihoods and food security.