Dr. Janet Edeme is presently the Head, Rural Economy Division in the Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

She has a B.Sc. in Botany from the University of Calabar in Nigeria, an M. Sc. In Agricultural Biology with specialization in Plant Pathology from the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry of the University of Ibadan She earned her PhD degree from the Department of Crop Protection and Environmental Biology of the University of Ibadan in conjunction with Texas A&M University, College Station, USA and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Nigeria. With a career spanning over 29 years, Dr. Edeme garnered experience as a Plant Pathologist, an Agricultural Development Specialist and a Policy Formulation and Development Analyst.  She has consulted for various international organizations including UNAIDS, UNESCO-IICBA(International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa) and FAO. 

As a consultant for the FAO, she was seconded to the AU-Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union to strengthen the capacity and facilitate the establishment of the Department. Within the African Union Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture, she is the focal point following up on the status of implementation of initiatives and programmes adopted by the AU Heads of State and Government, such as The AU Declaration on Land through the Land Policy Initiative which is now the African Land Policy Centre, The Continental Agribusiness Strategy, Continental Strategy on Post-Harvest Management, Policy Framework on Pastoralism to name a few. 

She also chairs a number of committees within the Commission and externally such as the Advisory Group of the Agricultural Policy Research in Africa (APRA) led by the Future Agricultures Consortium.