Tesfaye Getachew Mengistu

Dr. Tesfaye Getachew is a research management coordinator at ICARDA under the Resilient Agro-Silvo-Pastoral Systems team. He is an animal breeder and geneticist with experience in data analysis using various software to deal with phenotypic, genetics and genomics data and simulating breeding programs for small ruminants. Tesfaye worked for Debre Berhan Agricultural Research Center and the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute before joining ICARDA in 2017. He was engaged in animal genetic resource characterization and conservation, and genetic improvement focused on implementing on-farm and on-station sheep and goat breeding programs.

 

Dr. Tesfaye Getachew has research interest in developing, implementing and optimising animal breeding programs for low-input systems. He coordinates more than 100 community-based breeding programs for sheep and goats and supports breeding initiatives in other African and Asian countries. Passionate about data accuracy and has collaborated to develop genetic databases, worked on estimating breeding values, supervising field activities, genetic dissemination, optimising, and up-scaling of community-based breeding programs.

 

Dr. Tesfaye Getachew authored or co-authored more than 150 scientific papers (105 in peer-reviewed journals, and more than 45 other publications in conference papers, proceedings, guidelines, working papers and posters. He has supervised more than 20 Ph.D. and MSc. Students. He holds his Ph.D. in animal breeding and genetics from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna, Austria.