By Jamie Martin
USAID has announced a significant funding commitment of $57.4 million to drive agricultural innovation and enhance food security globally. This funding, revealed at the 2024 World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue in Iowa, includes over $38 million dedicated to supporting the Feed the Future Innovation Labs.
Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger initiative, partners with top U.S. universities and host country research institutions to pioneer solutions in agriculture and food security. The newly funded Climate Resilient Sustainable Intensification lab at Kansas State University and the Veterinary Vaccine Delivery lab at Washington State University are set to lead advancements in their respective fields. These labs will focus on increasing agricultural productivity and developing innovative vaccine delivery systems for livestock.
Additional funding will support existing projects like World Coffee Research at Cornell University, which is developing improved coffee varieties, and a partnership between the University of Florida and the University of California, Davis, focusing on poultry disease.
The remainder of the funding will support the development of disease-resistant wheat varieties and contribute to the Global Crop Diversity Trust to enhance crop adaptation capabilities. Akademiya2063 will also receive support to lead agricultural policy reform in Africa.
Feed the Future's impact over the past decade includes a 20 to 25 percent reduction in hunger and poverty in targeted areas, with 6.2 million producers adopting improved agricultural practices in 2023 alone. This initiative continues to draw on partnerships across sectors to drive transformational change in global agriculture.
Photo Credit: istock-ekkasit919
Categories: National