Plant breeding is an ever-expanding field, involving development of existing crops to better suit them to farmer and consumer use, said Frederic Kolb, professor of plant breeding and teaching coordinate for the Department of Crop Sciences at the University.

“Plant breeding boils down to the technology we use to protect plants and to develop new varieties to benefit farmers and consumers,” Kolb said. “(The goal is to) develop approved variety of whatever crop we’re working on and those varieties will be better than whatever farmers are planting.”

Through the DuPont Pioneer Hi-Bred University Plant Breeding Fellowship, the University will receive $60,000 to support two graduate fellowships in plant breeding. The fellowship is renewable every year, for five years, and the recipients will be selected by the University.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2008, the multi-national chemicals and health care company will provide $2.175 million in fellowships to support research and education in plant breeding for graduate students in universities across the country, according to the DuPont Web site.

DuPont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred seed business plans to distribute $1.5 million.

The University was chosen for the fellowship because of its strong programs in agriculture, said Patrick Arthur, public affairs manager for Pioneer Hi-Bred International, a DuPont subdivision.

“It’s nice that Pioneer is providing training and funding for this because they’re getting a lot of the people coming out of this University,” said Carol Bonin, who is pursuing a master’s degree in Crop Sciences.

Other universities receiving the fellowship include Cornell University, North Carolina State University, the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

DuPont will also provide 10 fellowships, worth $675,000, through 2009 for any university in the country, Arthur said. The fellowship can be used for anything that involves development of agriculture.

“We’re looking specifically at agronomic crops, corn, soybean, canola, sorghum, sunflower, wheat and alfalfa,” Arthur said.

Pioneer decided to fund this fellowship because of the rising need for more educated people in the field, he added.

“There are a number of factors that go into the shortage (of people in plant breeding),” Arthur said. “One factor is that a number of companies are increasing the amount of research they are doing, so there’s an increase in demand. Also, there hasn’t been as many students educated as the demand has increased. The number of plant breeding programs at the university setting has declined over the last 20 years or so.”

One of the ways to get more students interested is to provide more fellowships, Kolb said.

“This is an industry that continues to grow,” Arthur said. “In order to meet industry demand for these products we need smart individuals in this field. We continually invest in university programs to try to encourage students to get into plant breeding.”

These fellowships will be prestigious and the University will try to draw the best students it has to offer, Kolb said.

“Pioneer wants to get the best students possible,” Bonin said. “It benefits both the students and the company. I think it’s a great opportunity all around.”