This Month on Agrilinks: Innovations That Move Agriculture Forward
From creating climate-resilient sorghum to improving small-scale irrigation, Feed the Future funds innovations at the forefront of food security. Led by top U.S. universities and developing country research institutions, the Feed the Future Innovation Labs have been central to advancing solutions that reduce global hunger, poverty, and undernutrition.
For example, a major challenge in food security comes with post-harvest loss. As much as a third of cereal crops are lost after harvest, often because farmers don’t have sufficient ways to store their grain. The Feed the Future Innovation Lab for the Reduction of Post-Harvest Loss partnered with Kansas State University to tackle this challenge.
Along with Paul Armstrong, a researcher at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Isaac Sesi, a student at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana, they created GrainMate, a cost-effective tool to measure the ideal moisture content of maize and other grains. Using GrainMate, farmers can measure their grain’s moisture content before storage, ensuring grains are stored at the right moisture level and reducing fungal growth and aflatoxin contamination. Isaac is now selling GrainMate to farmers in Ghana from his start-up, Sesi Technologies.
GrainMate is just one example of the tools and research that comes from Feed the Future Innovation Labs. This month on Agrilinks, we’re excited to feature many more cutting-edge products that have arisen from Innovation Labs’ collaborations and research.
If you work for a Feed the Future Innovation Lab, or have created products or conducted research that has moved agriculture forward, submit a blog post this month and share your work with us!