MSU Leads Global Food Security Effort

Michigan State University will take the lead in creating a network of fellows to build up agricultural scientists in Africa and Asia. The new Borlaug Higher Education Agricultural Research and Development program, named after Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Norman Borlaug, is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development's Bureau for Food Security. The program will support long-term training of agricultural researchers at the master's- and doctoral-degree levels.

The five initial countries -  Ghana, Uganda, Mali, Mozambique and Bangladesh, have similar priorities: increase agricultural productivity; reduce trade and transportation barriers; develop sound market-based principles for agriculture; accelerate rural growth and development; and improve nutrition.

"MSU has 50-plus years of engagement in Africa, and we're currently managing several M.S. and Ph.D. training programs whose objectives and program design are similar to those of this initiative," said Eric Crawford, professor of agricultural, food and resource economics. "MSU faculty is well versed in planning, designing and managing training and human capacity-building programs, especially in plant breeding, food science and food security, which are key areas of Feed the Future."

View Michigan State University's press release at  http://news.msu.edu/story/msu-to-lead-new-global-food-security-effort/