In 1952, JUCAVM was founded as the Jimma Agricultural Technical School (JATS). This establishment resulted from an agreement between the United States and the Imperial Ethiopian Government. The school operated under the joint supervision of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Education (MoE) and Oklahoma State University (previously known as Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College) from 1952 to 1956. Following the termination of the agreement with Oklahoma State University by the year 1968, the school was under the exclusive administration of the Ethiopian Ethiopia’s Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) for the period 1968 to 1979 and it was renamed as Jimma Institute of Agriculture (JIA). From 1979 to 1990, the institute was under the administration of the Commission for Higher Education and the naming was once again tailored to Jimma Junior College of Agriculture (JJCA).
At the end of 1990, the affiliation of the college was under the Higher Education Main Department (HEMD) with the name Jimma College of Agriculture (JCA). In 1994, the college was once again transferred back to the Ethiopian Ministry of Education (MoE) until the year 1999 which marked the amalgamation of Jimma Institute of Health Sciences (founded in 1983) and Jimma College of Agriculture (JCA) as cofounders of Jimma University.
JUCAVM, the co-founder of Jimma University, is dedicated to advancing agricultural development through training, knowledge generation, and service delivery in Ethiopia. The college trains high-caliber professionals in broad areas of agriculture and veterinary medicine, both at graduate and undergraduate levels.
The college upholds the values of educational relevance, transparency, social accountability, gender sensitivity, equity, community participation, and empowerment. In line with this, the college works in partnership with training, research, industry, and extension/service institutions locally, nationally, and internationally.
JUCAVM comprises six departments in the fields of agriculture namely, Horticulture and Plant Sciences, Animal Sciences, Natural Resource Management, Agricultural Economics & Agribusiness Management, Rural Development & Agricultural Extension, Food Science and Postharvest Technology, and also School of Veterinary Medicine.
The different departments and the school under the college offer a wide range of training programs both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. These training programs are offered both in regular and Continuing and Distance Education (CDE) programs. The regular programs are conducted on the campus of the college, whereas the CDE programs have different forms of delivery including summer/winter programs, in-service, weekend, distance, and on-location programs.
In addition to training (which is linked with the promotion of academic excellence), the college also works on the other pillars of the University at large. These pillars include excellence in research, technology transfer, and innovation; excellence in community service and engagement; internationalization and institutional collaboration; and institutional transformation and good governance. Other cross-cutting issues (gender and education, special needs and inclusive education, HIV/AIDS and education, climate change and environment, and Drug and Substance Abuse prevention in education).