An effort to optimize breeding for grain sorghum in Sub-Saharan Africa has received a boost in the amount of $6.1 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The funds will go towards the TERRA-REF program at the Danforth Center to expand and accelerate development and use of advanced sorghum phenotyping and breeding technologies for smallholder farmers.

“The Gates Foundation recognizes that most smallholder farmers rely on small plots of land for food and income. This grant will help increase the productivity of a crop that can, in a sustainable and effective way, reduce hunger and poverty and make communities economically stronger and more stable over the long term,” said James Carrington, Ph.D., president of the Danforth Center.