Trees for Food Security Project bearing fruit in Ethiopia

On 16-17 October 2019, ICRAF’s Interim Regional Coordinator for the Eastern and Southern Africa Region, Dr. Peter Gilruth, his deputy, Prof. Catherine Muthuri, and Ethiopia’s Country Representative, Dr. Kiros Hadgu visited Trees for Food Security Project sites in Ethiopia. The project has been conducting research activities at Bako Agricultural Research Centre (BARC) of Oromia Region since 2012 in collaboration with BARC and the Forestry Research Centre in Addis Ababa.

The visitors, accompanied by the research team leader at BARC, Shiferaw Tadesse, who is also the focal person of the Bako Trees for Food Security Project, first headed to the centre located near Bako town, approximately 250 km west of Addis Ababa. Here, four tree species including Cordia Africana, Grevillea robusta, Croton macrostachys, and Acacia abyssinica had been planted in 2013; research on the interaction between the trees and crops such as teff (a local crop), finger millet and corn has been ongoing since then.