News

Solomon Demeke, poultry scientist at Jimma University College of Agriculture and Veterinary medicine in Ethiopia will be awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Agriculture during its annual Convocation ceremony, Friday, May 9^th 2014.

The University’s honorary doctorate is designed to recognize extraordinary contributions to society or exceptional intellectual or community achievement. The awarding of honorary doctorates, an important feature of Dalhousie University convocations, serves to celebrate both the individual and the university as well as to inspire our graduates, their families and guests.

Solomon Demeke is a poultry scientist at Jimma University College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine (JUCAVM) in the southwest highlands of Ethiopia and the developer of a low-input technology for brooding chickens called the hay-box brooder.

Easy to construct, use and modify with locally available materials and skills, the brooder allows the mother hen to go back to laying and increases egg productivity. Professor Solomon’s invention has been so successful at increasing the self-sufficiency of subsistence farmers in Ethiopia that the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has funded its dissemination throughout East Africa.

During the course of his four decades teaching at Jimma, his applied agricultural science research has resulted in 38 peer-reviewed and extension publications. Since 2008, he has been the local project director for three consecutive Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) funded international projects in collaboration with the former NSAC, now Dalhousie’s Faculty of Agriculture.

Under his wise counsel and good-natured leadership, his Nova Scotian partners have acquired knowledge about agriculture in eastern Africa and enhanced their own first-hand understanding of international agriculture.

Solomon is well known to many on the Dalhousie Agricultural Campus because of his leadership as JUCAVM Project Director on the Postharvest Management to Improve Livlihoods project. In this role he has hosted many visiting Canadian experts and student interns when they were at  Jimma University College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine to provide short term trainings. Professor Solomon is a well respected poultry scientist both at Jimma University as well as throughout the Horn of Africa.

Schedule of Events:

Thursday, May 8th , 2014

5:30 p.m.  Class of 2014 Baccalaureate Service – Cumming Hall

6:00 p.m. Class of 2014 Graduation Banquet Jenkins Hall

9:00 p.m. Class of 2014 Graduation Social – Upstairs Jenkins Hall

Friday, May 9th, 2014

10:00 a.m.  Tribute Awards Ceremony Alumni Theatre, Cumming Hall

1:00 pm Graduation procession forms at Jenkins Hall

2:00 pm Convocation ‑ Langille Athletic Centre

Reception to follow Jenkins Hall