In Missouri, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center received a three-year $6.1 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to expand and accelerate the development and deployment of advanced sorghum phenotyping and breeding technologies in support of improved varieties for smallholder farmers.
“The Gates Foundation recognizes that most smallholder farmers rely on small plots of land for food and income. This grant will help increase the productivity of a crop that can, in a sustainable and effective way, reduce hunger and poverty and make communities economically stronger and more stable over the long term,” said James Carrington, Ph.D., the president of the Danforth Center.
The funding broadens the impact of the TERRA-REF program launched in June 2015 to optimize breeding strategies for improving the yield and stress tolerance of sorghum, a leading bioenergy feedstock crop in the United States and a critical source of nutrition for Sub-Saharan Africa.