Dagne Wegary works as maize breeder, mainly focusing on the development and deployment of high yielding, and abiotic and abiotic stress-tolerant maize varieties for resource-poor farmers in eastern and southern Africa. He is coordinating multi-location on-station regional variety trials that are conducted in collaboration with NARS and seed companies in eastern and southern Africa.
Before moving to Zimbabwe in 2019, Wegary worked as CIMMYT’s maize seed systems specialist based in Ethiopia. During this period, he contributed to the release of several maize varieties, production and distribution of early generation seeds of selected varieties, which boosted maize production and productivity in the country. He is also actively involved in technical capacity building of NARS and seed company partners.