Asrat Asfaw Amele, an Ethiopian, has joined IITA-Abuja, Nigeria, as a Yam Breeder. He obtained a BSc degree in Plant Science from the former Alemaya Agricultural University (now Haromaya University), Ethiopia in 1995. He has an MSc degree in Plant Breeding and Genetics from CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hissar, India. He obtained his PhD in Plant Breeding at Wageningen University, The Netherlands in 2011.

Before this appointment, he had been a Potato Breeder at the International Potato Center, sub-Sahara Africa Regional Program since 2012.