To feed the world, we need to deliver.
With a track record of success, the Danforth Center and its partners are uniquely positioned to accelerate delivery of improved staple crops and farming systems to underserved smallholder farmers.
Into Farmers' Hands
The Danforth Center’s Institute for International Crop Improvement (IICI) has shown there is a path to market for improved staple crops in underserved geographies. Already pod-borer resistant cowpeas (that is, black-eyed peas) are in the hands of farmers in Nigeria—and now Ghana. With our dual leadership in both plant biotechnology and regulatory work, the Danforth Center is uniquely positioned to help bring more improved crops to more farmers in more places—crops like harvest-pest resistant black-eyed peas, disease-resistant cassava, lodging-resistant teff, and more. Your support will be used to leverage large multiyear and multinational grants to bring these crops to the people who will benefit most: hardworking smallholder farmers striving to lift their families and communities out of poverty.
Fast Forward
Solutions are needed right now. Conventional plant breeding takes decades. Biotech plant breeding shortens that amount of time, but still takes place over the scale of many years. To stave off global disruption in the face of food shortages amid a changing climate, we need to invest in the most advanced tech imaginable. One such moonshot is the new Plant Biotechnology Innovation (PBI) Hub at the Danforth Center. By innovating our own IP-free transformation and other tools for use at the Center and applying them to orphan crops that would not otherwise attract commercial attention, we are building a scalable solution to the current plant genetic transformation hurdle. Help us supercharge our transformation pipeline to fast forward improved crop development.
Plant a Seed
African organizations have long-established connections to farmers in their countries, but they do not always have access to cutting-edge technology or skilled personnel trained in that technology’s use. Your investment in this initiative will provide support to educate and equip our partner scientists with the advanced biotech skills and tools they need to continue projects already in motion and to launch their own. Plant a seed with us to grow capacity, self-reliance, and a brighter future in sub-Saharan Africa.
Next Up
Sustain the Earth
By improving existing crops and discovering new ones, the Danforth Center can sustain the Earth while feeding the world.