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College of Agriculture, Hawassa University 

About the School

College of Agriculture, Hawassa University

Hawassa College of Agriculture was established in 1976 (1968 EC) as a Awassa Junior Agricultural College (AJAC) under Addis Ababa university. It was started with five diploma programs, namely,

1.     Crop Production and Protection Technology (CPPT)                                   

2.     Horticulture Crops Production and Protection Technology (HCPPT)

3.     Animal Production and Protection Technology (APPT)- the nucleus of SARSc

4.     Rural Technology (RT) - the nucleus of IoT

5.     Home Economics (HE) – moved from Haramaya University - the nucleus of SNFST& FEGDS

The programs were launched by admitting the first 217 students, of which 207 students graduated after two years (184 males and 23 females). The programs were run by 31 academic staff (5 expatriates and 26 local) and 24 administrative workforces and Dr. Mealku Worede was the first Dean of the college.

The college of Agriculture is the oldest and the birth campus of the then “Debub University”, now Hawassa University, one of the first generation and now differentiated as research university in the country.

As university college campus, College of Agriculture is organised in three schools and one Faculty, i.e

  1. School of Plant and Horticultural Sciences (SPlHo)
  2. School of Animal and Range Sciences (SARSc)
  3. School of Nutrition, Food Science and Technology (SNFST)
  4. Faculty of Environment, Gender and Development Studies (FEGDS), which by itself is composed of three departments:

​ ​- ​Department of Agricultural Economics (AgEc)

​ - ​Department of Agribusiness and Value Chain Management (ABVM)

​ - ​Department of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension (RDAE).

Currently, the college runs eight undergraduates (8/97, 8.2% of the university), 26 MSc (26/102, 25.5% of the university) and 14 PhD programs (14/21, 67% of the university), with a total of 124 active academic staff, out of which 54% are PhD holders. In academic staff is composed of 7 Professors, 24 Associate professor, 41 Assistant professors and 52 lecturers.