Laureate Gebisa Ejeta, winner of the 2009 World Food Prize, arrived home later on Saturday. Senior government officials welcomed Prof. Gebisa upon his arrival at the Addis Ababa Bole International Airport.

VOA - The 2009 World Food Prize has been awarded to Gebisa Ejeta, an Ethiopian-born plant scientist at Purdue University. The private, $250,000 award -- presented at ceremonies in Des Moines, Iowa, October 15th -- is given annually to people who have helped address the world's food needs. This year's prize honors Ejeta's life-long work to improve the production of sorghum, one of the world's most important grain crops. It also honors his efforts to take his discoveries beyond the lab -- to the farmers who need them the most.

ENA - The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said ongoing efforts to expand apple development in various regions have become successful.

ENA - The ‘Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Project’ (DTMA), which was launched in 2006, has witnessed remarkable achievements in Ethiopia. It envisages benefiting 30-40 million farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa in a decade.

The government will sign accord with key stakeholders with a view to further developing the agriculture sector , State Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Abera Deresa said.

Reuters– Oil seed exports overtook coffee as Ethiopia’s biggest foreign exchange earner in the 11 months to May, the agriculture ministry said on Friday.

A tripartite agricultural project has been launched yesterday in the Ethiopian capital aiming at improving capacity of local farmers toward adopting possible climatic changes.

Ethiopian scientist was named on Thursday as the winner of the 2009 World Food Prize in an event at the U.S. State Department. Gebisa Ejeta, a faculty member at Purdue University in the Midwestern U.S. state of Indiana, was honored for his work on drought and weed-resistant varieties of sorghum.

Africa News - A $90,000 new bio-safety level-3 (BSL-3) rating laboratory has been inaugurated in Ethiopia. The new facility is financed by the Fourth Livestock Development Project (FLDP) of Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD).

AllAfrica - Earth Day 2009 will be celebrated in Ethiopia for the first time in Ethiopia as the country scales up efforts towards the maintaining and conservation of the natural environment, the ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD) said on Tuesday.