US-based plant center to help enhance crops in PHL, Bangladesh, Indonesia

A United States-based plant science center is expanding its international research efforts and is planning to help Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Philippines develop subsistence crops.

 

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri, announced last Oct. 22 its new "Institute for International Crop Improvement," would seek to improve crops "using the most effective technology for a meaningful impact on food production, food quality, and food security." 

 

The center, founded in 1998, focuses on enhancing virus and disease resistance, and improving nutrition in staple crops in Africa, St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila). 

 

However, the new institute will seek to study additional crops from Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Philippines.

 

The crops are beans, millet, cowpeas, and sorghum that have little value in the global market They are drought resistant and valuable to subsistence farmers, according to the SL Post-Dispatch report. 

 

The plant center noted these crops need more research similar to what was done to commodity crops like corn and soybeans that are traded in world markets.

 

"By focusing on these drought-tolerant crops, it really is effectively allowing us to help subsistence farmers," Paul Anderson, director of the new center, told SL Post-Dispatch.

 

A $10-million (P414 million) gift from an individual donor who refused to be named helped form the institute.

 

"We're pretty well-funded from a research grant that comes from USAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but those are directed at specific projects," said Anderson. "[T]his additional funding allows us to expand our research," he added.

 

The institute will pool the plant center's international work under one division. It is set to employ 25 staff members and hire more later on, according to the center. — Shaira Panela/VS, GMA News