January 1, 2022
The focus of this project is on resilience of the Hub Food Innovation Centers as convergence points for product innovation and drivers of economic and nutritional impacts for Niger and Senegal. Hub Food Innovation Centers are being strengthened to better engage with entrepreneurs, improve their effectiveness as product development centers, and bolster their sustainability.
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.
January 8, 2022
The focus of this project is on resilience of the Hub Food Innovation Centers as convergence points for product innovation and drivers of economic and nutritional impacts for Niger and Senegal. Hub Food Innovation Centers are being strengthened to better engage with entrepreneurs, improve their effectiveness as product development centers, and bolster their sustainability.
January 9, 2022
Globally, there is great interest in applying new genomic technologies to accelerate genetic gains in developing country breeding programs. However, these methods have not been adopted in developing country level National Agricultural Research Institutes (NARI) due a mismatch between available genomic selection approaches and the existing operations of NARI breeding programs.
January 11, 2022
Anthracnose is a widespread disease caused by a fungus that can have devastating effects on sorghum production. It occurs in numerous locations around the world, and is especially prevalent in areas of high humidity, including many regions in Africa and the southern United States. Smallholder farmers in Ethiopia and other regions often experience limited access to inputs and fungicide treatment options, leaving them especially vulnerable to anthracnose.
January 13, 2022
Farmers around the world can follow prescribed agronomic practices to a tee, but when they are up against nature, sometimes they need a step up from technology. The USAID Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sorghum and Millet, SMIL, has discovered how to help Ethiopian farmers increase sorghum viability and yields.
February 24, 2022
A research team supported by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sorghum and Millet (SMIL) helped rescue the cereal crop sorghum with fifty years of global research and new technology.
March 8, 2022
International Women’s Day is a day set aside to celebrate the achievements of women all around the world. These can be historical, cultural, political or scientific achievements. The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sorghum and Millet (SMIL) is working toward a more equitable future for everyone, and women are an integral part of that process.
March 31, 2022
The Sahel region of Africa is one of the harshest cropping environments in the world. Sahelian farmers have limited resources, income and access to inputs such as fertilizer and water. This makes the region ideal to introduce new technology advancements to help smallholder farmers with planting techniques to increase the pearl millet crop yield rate. The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sorghum and Millet (SMIL) at Kansas State University began a research project in 2013 to do just that. The project, Seed Balls - Enhancing the Yield Effect in Pearl Millet and Sorghum and Disseminating the Technology in West Africa, has developed seed ball technology to increase yield by up to 40%, provide opportunities for entrepreneurs (especially women) and increase income for smallholder farmers.