Laureate Melaku Worede was born at some stage in the Italian invasion in 1936.Success stories had punctuated all his born days. On the other hand, his dad was one of the famous patriots that had fought for his motherland untiringly apart from giving his all to his mother country time and again. Laureate Melaku Worede had attended the first primary school at Dejazmach Gebremariam School now known as Lycee Gebre Mariam.
After that he went to Haile Selassie I elementary school now known as Kokebe Tsiba. He had spent there about three years and left the school to go to Menelik II secondary school. He stayed there until he completed grade eight. Once upon a time, a radio announcement encouraging Ethiopian students all over the country to join the Ambo Agricultural School was made. It was German and Ethiopian cooperative kind of program. Therefore, he got basic training in agriculture which led him into where he is at this instant.
After graduation, he embarked on teaching various subjects at the Ambo Agricultural School. After a year, he was offered scholarship to go to America. Having completed his studies there, he returned home and got himself involved in teaching in Jimma. Subsequently, he went to Asmara as a research officer and stayed there for four solid years doing research. As drought was common in Northern Ethiopia way down up to Northern Shewa, he worked on droughtresistant crop materials area and proved himself to be successful in getting to the bottom of the problem in next to no time. As luck would have it, he enjoyed a chance to go to Sweden. He studied mainly genetics and plant breeding and came back to Asmara.
As a matter of fact, it was an intensive training which lasted for nine months. Afterward, he returned to Asmara and made a research on root development of plants to come up with drought resistant plants. This being the case, he did select plants and test them in Asmara and showed a lot of prospects. He was honored for the contribution. Afterward, Laureate Melaku headed straight to Wenchi as a research officer employed by the Dutch to do work on sugarcane and served there for two years. During his stay, the organization had big problems with smut disease, which was constantly creating a problem to the sugarcane plant.
Though the diseases were many, smut was the only outstanding disease. However, the scientist did not sit binding his hand and foot. Instead he kept on busying himself to come up with the solution. Last but not least, he figured out the solution within the shortest time possible. As time went on, Laureate Melaku joined the Jimma School as director. After two years, he left for America to study genetics. During his stay there, he came up with another contribution. For his dissertation, he analyzed thousands of wheat collected from all over the world by the US Department of Agriculture. And he found out that the top four wheat rich in protein and grown here in Ethiopia and in America.
Thus he got a very good record and came back to Ethiopia. Having completed his mission, he returned home and grew to be Officer in charge of Holeta Research Center. His next move was establishing the Hawassa Agricultural School which was under the Addis Ababa University. It is now called the University of Hwassa. At that point in time, he was the dean of that college. Afterward, he joined the Gene Bank where he had made a great history. As ill luck would have it, in the mid 1980s, Ethiopia was stricken by famine.
There was no way out. Quite a lot of people had closed their eyes never to open them in this regard. The situation of the country was falling from the frying pan into the fire over and over again. The whole lot turned out to be the talk of the entire world. The country was heading in the wrong direction. Be that as it may, Laureate Melaku Worede embarked on paying homage to farmers in Wollo region with the purpose of visiting and keeping an eye on the situation and making certain farmers had enough for their daily bread.
At that point in time, the area was stricken by famine. All of a sudden, the scientist came up with a farmer who was in trouble, for his wheat was not bearing fruits. Laureate Melaku did not take long to solve the problem in a little while. He kept on managing the Plant Genetics Resources Center, Ethiopia. At some stage in the drought, there was a big challenge in the country.
There was drought and a lot of starvation. The local seeds were in danger. This time, the gene bank kept on collecting thousands of sample crops. It was the only one of its kind in Africa. He had thousands of samples of various crops. They stored, conserved, maintained and studied. The bank was supported by the German government. But Laureate Melaku Worede kept on working by the sweat of his brow. During the crisis, he combined the farm activities conservation on the farm with that of the laboratories.
That was why it was called Melaku developed the best gene bank in Africa by Ethiopians alone. The Plant Genetic Resources Centre set in motion establishing strategic seed preserves of customary diversities that could be released to farmers for sowing during the time of draught. To the surprise of everyone, Laureate Melaku Worede along with his staff collected and safely stored a considerable amount of Ethiopia’s genetic wealth.
In due course of time, he established not only Africa’s finest facility of its kind, but also one of the world’s premier genetic conservation systems. Laureate Melaku Worede had trained more than a few gene bank curators as well as many other young scientists. Quite a lot of initiatives to support biodiversity protection and exploitation in Africa had put into effect Ethiopia’s experience as their model. The credit goes to Laureate Melaku’s pioneering work.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition, May19/ 2019
BY ADDISALEM MULAT
