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 Gertrude S. Aboagye |
Aboagye teaches cattle production and animal breeding - her specialty - to undergraduate students. She often takes her students on field trips to nearby farms to study cattle and other livestock. She finds her students very well informed and concerned about how to improve their country. Many of them go abroad to study and return to Ghana to do graduate work.
Aboagye is firmly convinced improving the genetic qualities and attributes of livestock breeds is essential to increasing animal productivity. She says that the Ghanian government has made substantial progress in that direction by implementing a new national agriculture and livestock policy. An Animal Breeding Consultant Team has been set up in Ghana, funded by the World Bank. Aboagye works with this team on behalf of the government in addition to her university duties.
At FAO, Aboagye worked with the Animal Genetics Resources Group, which is developing FAO's Global Programme for the Management of Farm Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR).
This programme has a country-based global infrastructure to help countries design, implement and maintain comprehensive national strategies for the management of their animal genetic resources. The Domestic Animal Diversity Information System (DAD- IS) is being developed as the superstructure for the different databases, documents and tools related to animal genetic resources in FAO's Global Programme. One of the most important features of DAD-IS is the capability to transfer and collect information through the Internet.
Aboagye worked mainly on the Breeds database in DAD-IS, proposing improvements in its structure and developing a manual to help national coordinators enter and update their country's data in a uniform manner.
As an informal contact, she submitted her country's breeds data for entry into the Global Databank, which is visible in DAD-IS. Her involvement in the programme at this very high level has made her appreciate the magnitude of the problems associated with the management of global animal genetic resources. She would like to believe that her own country will benefit from the knowledge and experience she has acquired during her stay in Rome as a Visiting Scientist.
Gertrude Aboagye also belongs to the Ghana Society of Animal Production, Ghana Science Asssociation, Ghana Animal Science Association, Women in Science and Technology and the University Teachers' Association of Ghana.
4 February 1998
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