Sorghum Researcher Wins World Food Prize

Scientist and Agronomy Professor at Purdue University, Indiana, US, has received the World Food Prize for his research leading to the increased production and availability of sorghum in his native Africa, reports US Grains Council (USGC). Sorghum is a major food crop for more than 500 million people on the African continent.

Ethiopia-born Ejeta is a plant breeder and geneticist who developed sorghum varieties resistant to drought and Striga, a parasitic weed. After spending five years of research in northern Sudan in the 1980s, which suffered from lack of rainfall, Ejeta developed the drought-tolerant cultivar Hageen Dura-1, the first commercial sorghum hybrid in Africa.

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“I focused my research on sorghum because I’m originally from Africa, and I’ve known about the importance of the crop to the people there,” Ejeta said. “So I wanted to work on improving sorghum.”

The award announcement was made at the US Department of State in Washington, DC, US by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and World Food Prize Foundation President Kenneth Quinn.

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