H.E. Dr Eyasu Abraha, Cabinet Minister and H.E. Mr Tesfaye Mengiste Dori, State Minister, Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia visited the ICAR- National Academy of Agricultural Research Management on 12^th March 2018. The main purpose was to discuss the issues of mutual benefit and find out the opportunities of collaboration with ICAR and Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Govt. of India. Dr. Peter Carberry, DDG (ICRISAT) and Dr. Anthony Whitbread, Research Program Director – Innovations Systems in the Drylands, ICRISAT also participated in the interactions.

Dr Ch. Srinivasa Rao, Director, ICAR-NAARM made presentation on success path of DARE, ICAR and Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Govt of India from green revolution to present day food exporting status of the country. Role of ICAR-NAARM in capacity building and knowledge transfer activates as per the MOUs of ICAR and Indo-African Summit was also highlighted.

Honorable Ministers of Agriculture explained about the agriculture and rural development in Ethiopia, he said that 80% farmers are dependent on agriculture, where mostly for subsistence, illiteracy, climate change is influencing the country. He sought the collaborations with ICAR for higher productivity with technology support, poverty reduction, agri-enterpreneurshp. Self-sufficiency in food production is important challenge which can be overcome by capacity building and empowering scientists and farmers of Ethiopia. He strongly believes that radical changes are possible with human capacity building development. Some of the collaboration areas may be farm mechanization for small farms, eLearning and MOOC courses with joint certification, IPR and technology management, farming demonstration centers were identified as strategic potential collaborations.

They visited various infrastructure and laboratory facilities of the academy.