The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and The United Kingdom’s Department of International Development (DFID) announced Sunday that they will collaboratively donate $25 mil and $15 mil, respectively, to Cornell’s ongoing project to fight wheat pathogens.
Begun in April 2008, Cornell’s Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat Project (DRRW) leads a team of 17 institutions across the globe to combat the spread of the deadly Ug99 fungus. The strain, first discovered in East Africa, has spread throughout the continent and into the Middle East over the past 10 years, causing stem rust that has destroyed up to 80% of crop yield in some instances.
The five-year grant is aimed to help researchers identify genes that could lead to creating rust-resistant strains of wheat, extend surveillance abilities and provide rust-resistant seeds to farmers. Professor Ronnie Coffman, plant breeding and genetics, is the director of DRRW and principal investigator of the project.
“We cannot overstate the importance of this announcement on the part of two of the most important funders of solutions for addressing the causes of poverty, hunger and disease in the developing world,” he said in a University press release. “Against the backdrop of rising food prices, and wheat in particular, researchers worldwide will be able to play an increasingly vital role in protecting wheat fields from dangerous new forms of stem rust, particularly in countries whose people can ill afford the economic impact of damage to this vital crop.”
