Growing up in Ethiopia, Ephrem has seen the struggle for smallholder farmers to become self-sufficient through rainfed agriculture. Ephrem believes Africa’s development potential can only be sustainably realized through meaningful agricultural and rural development efforts that place smallholder farmers at the epicenter. His entire professional experience has been committed to supporting the efforts of African smallholder farmers in improving their livelihoods. His expertise spans across public, private and development sectors in agricultural cooperatives development, value chain sustainability, agricultural marketing, and rural finance. Ephrem came to the US to pursue his graduate studies and earned a master’s degree in International Development with a focus in Sustainable Agriculture and environmental development in Sub Saharan Africa from American University in Washington D.C.
Joining TREES was a continuation of the journey he started to the same goal with a more meaningful and impactful approach