Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research MAAERE HICS PCIE RANT Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center Rf Hee ICS CIC MIAN Debre Zeit, Ethiopia ene net arene Date 10 JUN 2013 Ret. No. (490 J 2.0/3 ry aa Dr. Dawit Solomon, Cornell University Ithaca USA Subject: Letter of Interest in Developing a Concept Note on Multidisciplinary Collaborative Project on Tef in Ethiopia Dear Dawit, As you know tef, while it is the most important cereal in Ethiopia, is an orphan or under-utilized crop in the senes that it so far remained untapped in terms of research and development. Consequently, a partnership project approach in tef research with relevant institutions in developed countries such as the USA, is vital to undertake both basic and applied research and thereby move to taking up the tef crop out of its orphanage Indeed, our previous experiences with partenership project with Comell University through the funding support of the McKnight Foundation Collaboarative Crop Research Program (MF-CCRP) since the mid-1990's has demonstrated a good instance of substantial progress in tef research and development. As such, the crop has now gained due recognition of the Ethiopian Government partly due to the achievements registered through the MF-CCRP supported partnership tef project. Nonetheles, a lot still remains to be done to boost the productivity and production of tef in Ethiopia through proper identification and diagnosis of the major constraints and subsequent and appropriate research and development interventions. [As you may know, Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center has been the National Center of Excellence and coordinator of the tef project in Ethiopia. To this end, the National Tef Project Team at DZARC has been looking forward to opportunities for collaboartive project of mull disciplinary nature in order to combat the major bottlenecks in tef production. We eamestly believe that a mult-disciplinary collaboarative project would be vital for finding solutions to the major constraints of tef production and thereby enhance the productivity and production of tef in Ethiopia. The National Tef Project coordinated from DZARC has got some scientific (research) and technical personnel, and modest infrastructure and facilities such as office-lab complex. Besides, there are sizable amounts of research fields and seed multiplication fields at the main center, its five sub-sations (Minjar, Alem Tena, Chefe Donnsa, Akaki and Denbi.) and at the various collaborating centers distributed all over the major tef growing regions of the country. However, the national tef project still requires capacity enhancement in terms of personne, infrastructure and facilities. cr = e3tol P.O. Box32 Tel 251-4-33 85 55/33 8765 Fax 251-4-33 80 61 et (Fin,While, the general picture of the status of the tef project in Ethiopia is as briefly outined above, this is, therefore, to express, our heartfelt interest in the devlopment of a concept note for a multi- disciplinary tef research project with the relevant units of Cornell University and Jima University. Indeed, we believe that this is not only a matter of interest but rather a felt-need. ‘Thanking you in advance for your positive consideration, and looking forward to the ‘materialization of an effective partnership tef reserch project, we remain. Sincerely, $27 Idk 03 1008 Kebebew Assefa (PhD) Senior Researcher and National Tef Project Coord Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center E-mail: Kebebew.Assefa@yahoo.com Tel. (mobile): +251-(0) 911-051640