Agricultural Biotechnology Research Directorate
The Agricultural Biotechnology Research at EIAR officially started in 2010. Research activities under the Directorate are being conducted at NABRC (Holetta); JARC (Jimma); MARC (Melkassa); DZARC (Debre Zeit); and WGARC (Wondo Genete). The main objectives of the Directorate are to conduct scientific and adaptive research on the country’s diverse genetic resources (plants, animals, and microbes). The directorate is dedicated to generating information, develop protocols and technologies that help increase production and productivity, increase efficiency and income, replace foreign currency, create employment opportunities for citizens, and sustainably provide critical inputs for various industries in the bioeconomy value chain. Through its laboratory at NABRC, Holetta, the Directorate provides resources and expertise for postgraduate students coming from universities. In 2021, the Directorate launched the “Beyond the Lab” initiative aimed at guiding research activities in its three programs through the biotech product development process with focus on product scale-up and delivery to end users. The five main strategies of this initiative are 1. Establishing technology incubation units to promote early-stage technology development, 2. Linking its research/research outputs with local companies, 3. Establishing biotech start-ups using research outputs from the sector, 4. Establishing vvillage/ranch-based heifer production schemes, and 5. Establishing large scale plantations of tissue culture generated seedlings. To achieve its objectives, the directorate has been organized into three main research programs.
Plant Biotechnology Program We conduct fundamental research about how diverse our crop genetic resources are, screen for key markers and/or genes of agronomic importance, adopt, test, and commercialize GM crop technology, develop, and optimize in vitro mass propagation protocols for key horticultural crops. To do this, we partner with research institutions in the country and around the world for resource mobilization and product development. So far, the program has advanced insect resistant cotton and maize varieties into regulatory field trials in different parts of the country as a critical step toward delivering genetically enhanced planting materials to farmers. More than 10 in vitro mass propagation protocols were developed for key horticultural crops including coffee, pineapple, Enset, banana, and sweet potato. Through regular research and postgraduate student research projects, selected accessions from Ethiopia’s Biodiversity Institute have been characterized using molecular tools
Microbial Biotechnology Program We conduct basic and applied research about the characteristics of indigenous microbes, how these microbes and their metabolic products can be efficiently used in the food, feed, bio-organic agriculture, industrial waste treatment, biotechnological conversion of agro-industrial wastes into beneficial products or industrial chemicals, and other sectors. For this, we conduct research activities targeted at screening, identification and use of the microbes (both bacteria and fungi) and their metabolites for use as starter technologies in the food and dairy processing industry, biofuel production, and enzymes used in the fruit juice processing, textile, beer and tannery industries. The microbial biotechnology research group is also active in community services, e.g. technology outreach in mushroom cultivation, improving traditional fermented food, feed production, and application of local microbial genetic resources.
The microbial biotech program developed highly efficient starter culture technologies for dairy, injera, cassava, and Enset fermentation. In addition, single cell proteins for use as feed supplements for the poultry and fishery sectors and a potent protease and pectinase enzyme was produced for leather and juice processing industry applications. The program also established mushroom R&D and training unit and supports youth groups in urban areas with the provision of starting spawn and technical backstopping. The microbial biotech research program, isolated and identified beneficial microbes and secondary metabolites from various sources collected from different agro-ecology for potential applicability in food, feed, bio-organic agriculture for improving crop productivity, production industrial chemicals, biofuels, and bioremediation. The microbes were screened for enzyme production (protease, amylase, cellulase, xylanase and laccase) and further studies are being conducted for mass production and scaling-up of the technology.
