January 10, 2021
The Millet Head Miner (MHM) is a major chronic insect pest of millet in the Sahel. This project will serve to develop technologies for controlling the MHM, with intentions to significantly decrease the devastating losses that it can inflict (often ranging from 40-85 percent) on millet yields. Improved management of this key pest will result in increased pearl millet productivity and greater income and food security among millet farmers.
January 11, 2021
This multi-disciplinary research project includes entomology, breeding, and agricultural economics to develop, evaluate, and deploy sorghum genotypes resistant to abiotic and biotic stresses and adapted to indigenous production and storage systems in West Africa.
January 11, 2021
This project focuses on developing and utilizing high-yielding, locally-adapted sorghum varieties and hybrids that are rich in highly-digestible protein and essential micronutrients, while at the same time suiting local processing methods and diverse production systems. Through collaborative sorghum research, new innovations including the recently completed sequence of the sorghum genome, fine mapping of loci associated with Striga resistance, discovery of biochemical compounds associated with processing and utilization of sorghum grains, and the development of herbicide-resistant sorghum are utilized and explored.
January 12, 2021
The main goal of the pearl millet breeding program at the Kansas State University Agricultural Research Center in Hays, Kansas is to develop parental lines for producing hybrids for grain and forage use. The project focuses on harnessing genetic variability and development of parental lines for new hybrids with high genetic yield potential, yield stability, improved drought and high temperature tolerance, disease resistance, and enhanced nutritional quality especially micronutrient density of the grain.
January 12, 2021
This project aims to tackle the challenges of both human and animal malnutrition by setting the foundation and developing a strategy for farmer-participatory breeding of highly nutritious, dual-purpose pearl millet varieties in the target countries Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
January 3, 2022
This project expands the team’s sorghum crop improvement efforts through targeted research and technology transfer to promote and enhance sorghum production and nutritional value. Researchers have already identified allelic variation in genes that influence grain and forage quality; specifically, grain protein digestibility, modified starches that produce new functional food and nutritional attributes, and improved forage quality.
January 4, 2022
New sorghum hybrids under development combine high protein digestibility (HPD) mutation with waxy and heterowaxy (WX/HX) starch traits in hard endosperm show a lot of promise for various food applications due to superior functionality and improved protein nutritional quality. This project aims to advance the use of these new sorghums for food and nutrition security in Ethiopia.
January 5, 2022
The Sorghum Adaptation in West Africa with a Genomics-Enabled Breeding Network (SAWAGEN) is a unique network of national researchers, international collaborators and farmer organizations aimed at leveraging capacity to develop and deliver demand-driven improved varieties to farmers. It is built on four separate platforms – local adaptation breeding, genetic mapping research, physiological mapping research, and broad adaptation breeding – and links researchers across those platforms in a hypothesis-driven, goal-oriented research approach. The SAWAGEN spans Senegal, Burkina Faso, Togo and Niger and reinforces existing regional breeding network initiatives to further accelerate interdisciplinary solutions to key crop improvement challenges across the Sahel.
January 6, 2022
Drought, disease, and insect pressure are key constraints for pearl millet production in West Africa. There is a recognized need for rapid advancement in the development of varieties addressing these constraints while taking into consideration farmer’s practices and market acceptability. This project is accelerating the development of a combination of pearl millet innovations to support sustainable productivity enhancement of the crop and ultimately increased food security and income generation for vulnerable populations in the West Africa.