Hussein Haji, Ph.D., has served for twenty years with the Ministry of Agriculture in Somalia. He worked as Senior Researcher and a lecturer of Genetics and Plant Breeding at the Somali National University. He has also served as the coordinator of the national sorghum improvement program and director of the central agriculture research station. He travelled to Canada where he obtained his Ph.D. in Genetics and Plant Breeding at the University of Guelph. Soon after his graduation, he joined Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, where he served for 10 years as a lead scientist in the tobacco breeding and biotechnology department. During his service, he developed both open pollinated as well as hybrid varieties of tobacco using state-of-the-art technologies. While working with Agriculture Canada, Haji joined other agriculture professionals in founding the Somali Agricultural Technical Group (SATG).