Bisrat Getnet Awoke holds a B.Sc. in Agricultural Engineering and Mechanization from Hawassa University and an M.Sc. in Agricultural Machinery Engineering from Adama Science and Technology University in Ethiopia. Bisrat has led the Agricultural Engineering Research Directorate at the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research for 6 years. He has worked on different research projects such as the project “Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (FACASI)” of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT) and the project “Cultivate Africa” of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). He has also worked on projects funded by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, and the GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit). Bisrat is co-founder and served as deputy president for the Ethiopian Society of Agricultural Engineers. He is doing his Ph.D. at the University of Hohenheim under a DAAD scholarship.Currently, he is Ph.D. candidate working on mechanized conservation agriculture and the evaluation and improvement of the AMAZONE seed drill prototype for sub-Saharan Africa, in collaboration with AMAZONE Stiftung (Germany), CIMMYT-Ethiopia, and EIAR in Ethiopia. He also conducted a baseline impact assessment on potato mechanization in Kenya with the AAE (African Agri-Center of Excellence) consortium project, collaborating with GRIMME, POTTINGER, BAYER from Germany, and Kenyan partner TingA.
