Habtamu Didanna

Dr Habtamu Lemma is an Associate Professor of Dairy Production at Wolaita Sodo University (WSU). He is a graduate of Addis Ababa University in the areas of tropical animal production and health. He conducted pioneering and original research for his MSc thesis and PhD dissertation on the performance of the Jersey breed and the intensification of dairy production in Ethiopia, respectively. These published on reputable journals (e.g. https://doi.org/10.1177/0030727018770463; https://doi.org/10.1093/fqsafe/fyy009 ; https://doi.org/10.1080/20421338.2019.1571149)..) He has more than a decade of experience in teaching, research, development, and extension, including administrative roles as a director, registrar, and department head. He has been advising students and providing thesis supervision, connecting to funders, and examining postgraduate students; participating in research and community service projects; coordinating different committees formed for research, designing programmes, and conferences; and coordinating and managing programmes and projects with a results-oriented attitude and as a strong team player. One of the projects he led (PI) include capacity building for small holder dairy producers. The forage action research on improving the feeding systems and dairy management practices raised milk production and income. He has participated in the research and development activities of NGOs (FARM Africa, Ayuda en Accion Ethiopia, EIAR-AHI Ethiopia, Wolaita Development Association, SNV, Send A Cow, CIAT). For instance, he had conducted baseline study on characterizing peri-urban and mixed crop-dairy production systems and shared with stakeholders for the project by SNV on ‘promoting market oriented dairy sector development in Wolaita area’. He has also participated in another research and the findings were published on journals (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resglo.2023.100158 ; https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.20789 ). He has taken various professional development trainings and courses, including project development and consultancy, product quality and food safety, entrepreneurship, value chain analysis, and food systems for healthy and sustainable diets. He has authored and co-authored more than 23 articles in reputable journals. He participated in various national and international conferences and workshops. His research interests focus particularly on interdisciplinary aspects of science that cover tropical livestock production and health, climate-smart livestock, sustainable dairy production systems, value chains, the role of dairy in food and nutrition security, One-Health, and livestock biodiversity. He has international experience, such as at Wageningen University, University College Dublin, and Kenya-CIAT. He has been participating in the review processes and editorial contributions of reputable journals. His role in the present project will be focal person of this project from our university.