The advent of improved lentil varieties (ILVs) in the mid-1990s solved the disease problem
which almost halted lentil production in Bangladesh. Levels of adoption of ILVs have been
documented in the literature, but little is known about their impacts...
Yigezu Atnafe Yigezu

Dr. Yigezu Atnafe Yigezu is an agricultural economist with a focus on international development. He has research interest and experience in various areas of agricultural development, including production economics, technology adoption, out-scaling, impact assessment, policy and institutional analysis, bio-economic modelling of production systems, natural resource and environmental economics, and crop and livestock value chain analysis.
Yigezu joined the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in 2010 as a post-doctoral scientist and is currently a senior scientist in the Resilient Agricultural Livelihoods Systems (RALS) program. His research portfolios include adoption and impact assessments for the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (CRP-Wheat) in six countries and for the project on Enhancing Food Security in five Arab Countries, estimation of food loss and wastage in each node of the wheat value chain in three countries, field experiment using RCT on alternative extension and input service delivery systems, the economics of conservation agriculture, estimation of the cost of land degradation, and bio-economic modelling for optimization and sustainable development of mixed crop-livestock production systems. Over the course of his career, he has supported research projects in over 16 countries in Africa, Asia, and North America.
Yigezu has over 100 publications, including 40+ peer-reviewed journal articles, 12 book chapters and 12 working papers, position papers, and published reports. Yigezu has co-edited two books and has several manuscripts under review with ISI journals and in the pipeline. In the last eight years alone, he has raised over US$3.61 million in research funding.
Yigezu earned his master's and PhD degrees in agricultural economics from Purdue University, USA, and two bachelor's degrees (one in Statistics and another in Economics) from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. His quantitative skills include mathematical programming, econometrics, stochastic dynamic programming, and computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling. Prior to his graduate studies, Yigezu worked for 14 years – 10 years with the Ministry of Water Resources of Ethiopia, two years with Alem Children Support Organization (ACSO) and two years with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Some of Yigezu's recent publications are listed below.