Office of the Vice-president for Research Affairs celebrated Tony Day for the third time on July 17, 2018 at the University’s Dire Dawa Tony Farm.

The Office has organized this event in order to appreciate the workers on their hard work and to have a discussion on issues of concerns.

According to Mr. Shibiru Wakjira, Dire Dawa Tony Farm Site Manager, this year alone 3800 citrus family seedlings have been made available to the surrounding community. The farm has been serving as a research site and demonstration field for Haramaya University researchers and students as well as different projects.

Many projects, regional agricultural offices and organizations working on agriculture and related fields have taken seedlings and varieties of many crops, vegetables and fruits because of the good performance and quality produces they have found at the farm.

The farm has added mango and spinach researches this year. In previous trials mango research has been a failure in Dire Dawa and its surrounding areas. Areas surrounding Eror have been ideal for mango production. But with the introduction and adoption of new mango varieties, the site is hoping for a fruitful result.

The Chaya research was first initiated by a Mrs. Bekelu who brought the spinach variety to the University’s attention. This variety has vitamin A, B, C, and K and other minerals and it is used as a salad in many western countries. The variety has not been released to the community’s consumption as research is being conducted on it.

Issues of uniform, border issues with Dire Dawa University and overtime payments were some of the issues raised by the farm workers. Dr. Nega Assefa, Delegate of the Office of the Research Affairs, and Mr. Desta Reta from Human Resource Management and Development Directorate gave responses and promised to bring some of the issues to the appropriate bodies in the University’s administration.