Okeyo Mwai is principal scientist and deputy leader of ILRI’s global Livestock Genetics (LiveGene) research program and the principal investigator (PI) of the ADGG program. He is currently leading ILRI-led dairy cattle genetic gain development and research programs in eastern Africa. He previously led ILRI’s breeding strategies research on the characterization and genetic diversity of indigenous tropical livestock and utilization of assisted reproductive technologies in dairy cattle. He has experience in practical design and implementation of livestock improvement programs in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Raphael Mrode is principal scientist in quantitative dairy cattle genetics at ILRI. He holds a joint position at the Scotland Rural College as Professor in quantitative genetics and genomics. In the ADGG project, he leads the development and operation of analytics for country recording and information systems and builds and strengthens the capacities of country teams in designing and implementing the dairy breeding program. Working closely with Prof John Gibson, Mrode designs the procedure for young bull certification and leads the cross-bred bull evaluation and plays a key role in training country teams in genetic evaluation.
Julie Ojango, is a scientist at ILRI where she works in projects that identify appropriate breeds and breed combinations for ruminant livestock production systems in developing countries. She is involved in developing and testing livestock performance recording and feedback systems and piloting and delivering breeding strategies and she played a key role in ensuring a national database of performance of various livestock in Kenya is maintained by the Kenya Livestock Breeders Organization. Ojango is contributing to activities that will realize Objectives 1 and 3 of ADGG.
Professor Steve Kemp, a senior molecular geneticist, leads the overarching ILRI LiveGene program and is responsible for ensuring overall integration of the elements of the ADGG program. He has significant experience in leading large and multidisciplinary projects and providing oversight over field sample and metadata collection systems and integration of genetic data storage systems. Kemp is providing overall leadership in data management and sharing, particularly in developing effective and useful tools for data visualization and sharing. He is directly contributing to Objective 2 and will provide overall oversight to the ADGG program.
Eliamoni Lyatuu works with ILRI as the ADGG national coordinator for Tanzania. He has experience in the economy of animal production and agriculture as a business and has led projects on marketing of agricultural products in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. He coordinates ADGG in Tanzania including the programs work with partners in the country.
Daniel Komwihangilo is a principal research scientist at the Tanzania Livestock Research Institute (TALIRI) and chairperson of the Tanzania Society for Animal Production. He is ADGG principal investigator (PI) and leader in Tanzania. His background is in livestock production systems and ruminant nutrition research and he has initiated and led research projects and teams in on station and on farm activities in beef, dairy and dual purpose goats.
Gilbert Msuta is livestock research scientist at TALIRI under the Dairy Research Program and is currently manager of livestock research development at the institute’s headquarters. He is ADGG’s key liaison officer between the project partners and stakeholders in Tanzania and works closely with the national programme coordinator and country PI.
Kefena Effa, a population, molecular and quantitative geneticist, is ADGG national program coordinator in Ethiopia. He plays a key role in technical implementation of the program by working with key national and international ADGG partners. As in-country principal investigator (PI) he also plays a role in linking the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries (MoLF) and other key decision-makers with ILRI. Before he joined ILRI, he worked for the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) as a National Dairy and Equine Commodities Research Coordinator and had track records in the national dairy cattle research for development (R4D) program of Ethiopia.
Professor John Gibson, Professor Gibson is Director of the Centre for Genetic Analysis and Applications and Director of International Development in the School of Environmental and Rural Science at the University of New England, Australia. He has over 30 years’ experience in livestock genetics, genetic improvement and livestock systems. A major focus of his work has been on the use of livestock genetic innovations to improve the function and profit of a wide variety of farming systems and businesses, ranging from smallholder systems in developing countries to multinational corporations. He has collaborated extensively with Dr Okeyo Mwai and other ILRI scientists in a range of activities and projects over the past 13 years; with major collaborations in smallholder dairy genetics applications. In addition to being co-PI with Dr Mwai on the ADGG, John has a large collaboration with BAIF on smallholder dairy genetic development in India. He also manages UNE’s international development agriculture short-course training program.
Mizeck Chagunda is a reader in dairy science at the Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and is SRUC’s lead partner in ADGG. Chagunda’s research work revolves around identifying and utilizing indicators that help to predict observed phenotypes and associations and effectively applying technologies in defining novel traits to optimize genetic improvement strategies and the contribution of livestock to food security. In the ADGG project, he contributes to the design, development and testing of analytics for individual animal recording and farmer feed-back systems.
Susan Kahumbu Stephanou is creative director at Green Dreams Tech Limited. She is a TED Global Fellow and she sits on the advisory board of the Changing Course in Global Agriculture and is a governor of the Mpesa Foundation Academy.
Joachim M Balakana is national country coordinator for Land O’ Lakes International Development Fund Public-Private Partnership for Artificial Insemination Delivery (PAID) Program in Tanzania. Balakana leads the PAID Tanzania program by providing direct technical support to the program’s technical team and overseesing program planning. He coordinates and directs implementation, monitoring and reporting of PAID activities. He also oversees program operations including administration, logistics, procurement, human resource and data management. He has worked in the Tanzania dairy sector for more than 20 years particularly in dairy development program development and implementation; capacity strengthening of dairy value chain actors and in dairy genetics.
Ethiopia
In Ethiopia ADGG is implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, livestock and Fisheries Development.
Tanzania
In Tanzania, the ADGG program is implemented by the Tanzania Livestock Research Institute (TALIRI), which was established by Act No. 4 of 2012 as a semi-autonomous public institution responsible for coordinating and conducting livestock research in the country.
African Dairy Genetic Gains 