Abiotic stress (drought and heat stress) is the primary cause of agricultural loss globally, and represents a major threat to food security in deserted areas. Despite the existing effort of research and development, low agricultural productivity and food insecurity remains an enormous challenge for Ethiopia. The recent increase in extreme weather events (climate shocks), threatens to have disruptive impacts on agriculture and agroforestry sectors of the country. The lack of stress tolerant seed and plant varieties are among the identified major constraints to greater adoption of dryland agriculture and agroforestry innovations in the desert areas. It is therefore essential to enhance the development of stress tolerant plant varieties and introduce desert plant species. Plant breeding research in Ethiopia dates back to 1953. Today, more than ten institutions are involved in formal plant breeding and biotechnology research in Ethiopia. However, the effort of Ethiopian plant breeding programs in desert plants is very limited.