U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and the College of ACES announced Friday that the University has received a $25 million federal grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development to increase the food supply in five African countries by improving soybean yields.
University agricultural economist Peter Goldsmith will lead the team of universities and nongovernmental research organizations working on this project, officially titled the Feed the Future Innovation Laboratory for Soybean Value Chain Research.
Durbin has a special connection to the project, as he helped bring the National Soybean Research Laboratory to the University in the late 1990s and has secured over $5.2 million in funding for soybean research.
“These (Morrow) plots and research labs are examples of the University of Illinois’ long tradition of using agricultural research to help farmers in Illinois and across the United States and people around the world,” he said.
Durbin also said the project is significant for him because he’s visited Africa so many times throughout his Congressional career.
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“The potential for development and rapid growth always seems so far away for those who haven’t visited,” he said. “But those of us who have been there know better.”
Currently, 38 percent of the population of Ethiopia lives below the poverty line. Forty-four percent of Ethiopian children under the age of 5 are failing to grow, in part due to lack of proper nutrition. However, in the past 10 years, six of the fastest growing economies in the world have been in Africa, and Durbin sees a new middle class rising.
“This is a continent that’s in real evolution,” he said. “We need to make sure that middle class of tomorrow is well-fed, well-educated and well-prepared to lead the world.”
This is the first USAID-supported soybean research program, Goldsmith said.
“It will fill a significant void of sorely needed research for a region that has too long languished in poverty, low agricultural productivity and malnutrition,” he said.
Robert Hauser, dean of the College of ACES, is also excited about the work that this team will be doing.
“Fundamental to economic growth … is a strong agricultural economy,” he said. “Once you have that in place, the rest of the economy can grow.”
The goal of the Feed the Future team is to provide sufficient food to the world’s population. According to Feed the Future 2010 Global Food Research Strategy, providing sufficient food to the world’s growing population will require a 70 percent increase of global agricultural production by 2050 to reduce global poverty and hunger.
“We pride ourselves in being a land grant university with a huge research mission and global impact,” Chancellor Phyllis Wise said. “This is what the world expects of the University of Illinois, and this is what we’re committed to do.”
Steffie can be reached at [email protected].
