Message from the Dean

College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences (CAES) at Bahir Dar University (BDU) is located in Bahir Dar city, which is situated on the southern shore of Lake Tana; the largest lake in Ethiopia and the source of the Blue Nile River. CAES is one of the biggest colleges at Bahir Dar University located at the middle of agrarian region. CAES is found in Zenzelma campus at the eastern part of the city along the road to Gondar. It is established in 2005. The college is committed to advancing agricultural development through training, knowledge generation, and service delivery in the country and beyond.

As dean of CAES, I am pleased to welcome all students, researchers, guests, alumni, and community members. I believe there is nothing necessary and priority other than feeding the ever increasing world population, which needed Agricultural Education and Research. In Africa, particularly in Ethiopia, agriculture is at the center of societal development and economic transformation. The sector is the source of GDP, employment, export earnings, and foreign currency. 

The mission of CAES is training of graduates that are highly demanded by the labor market, undertaking  impactful and problem-solving researches, improving lives through evidence-based and transformative community engagement, providing demand-driven and problem solving technology transfer and consultancy services and enhancing wealth-creation through innovation and entrepreneurship. To achieve its mission the CAES offers both undergraduate and postgraduate studies in a wide range of agricultural fields. Currently, 12 BSc, 29 MSc and 9 PhD programs are running in one school and 8 departments. We are always committed to satisfying the interest of our customers and are very flexible to the needs of the labor market and industry. 

CAES has a clean and green campus with a beautiful landscape. It is also a place where one can smoothly get internet access through its well-organized wired and wireless network. The educational activities of the college are directed toward effective teaching-learning. We have smart classrooms, computer rooms, laboratories, greenhouses, student plots and dairy, poultry, and apiculture farms to facilitate the practical teaching-learning, and research activities. We also have Research, Technology Multiplication and Community Engagement Centre with over 50 hectares of irrigable land at Koga Irrigation Scheme, about 40 km Northwest Bahir Dar City, which serve as the hub for research, technology multiplication and dissemination and income generation. 

Our community outreaches involve the dissemination of poultry chickens, beehives, coffee seeds, and seedlings, planting materials of different forage grasses, and trees including fruit trees from our own nursery. To concentrate our efforts and bring more impact our community outreach are mainly in Bahir Dar City and its surroundings. Meanwhile, we have launched a watershed based community engagement project called “Mogedel Sub-watershed Model Rural Village Development Project” in 2023, which is implementing in Mogedel watershed around our campus. The project aims to establish model rural village that integrates crop production, livestock, natural resource management and energy. The model village is not only hubs for our own released technologies but also where we bring technologies from similar agro-ecologies and introduce them to farmers. We are committed and working hard to realize our objectives. 

CAES has a strong linkage and cooperation with several national and international institutions and/or organizations in the areas of training, research, community engagement and technology transfer. Some of these institutes are Amhara Region Agricultural Research Institute (ARARI), Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Netherlands Development Organization (SNV), University College for Agrarian and Environmental Pedagogy (HAUP) Austria, German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung-Ethiopia (HRNS), Ethiopian Horticulture Producer Exporters Association (EHPEA), Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) Austria, Hubie University China, Sichuan Agricultural University China,  Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences (HSWT) Germany, SOKA University Japan, Injibara University Ethiopia,  International Centre of Insect Physiology And Ecology/Icipe/, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Norwegian Research Council (NRC).  These collaborations are helping us to enhance our staff capacity through post-graduate studies, joint research projects, and student exchange and laboratory facility development.  Our future interest is to further expand our international partnerships and collaborations to continue as a leading agricultural training and research institute. 

Finally, I invite you to take a tour of our college’s website and learn more about the exciting academic programs and staff profiles, scientific research, and projects.

Contact Address:
Prof. Melkamu Alemayehu Workie
Dean: College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences,
Bahir Dar University
P.O. Box 5501, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
E-mail: Melkamu.Alemayehu1@bdu.edu.et or melkalem65@gmail.com

Website: https://www.bdu.edu.et/caes/
Mobile: +251911406594