News
$24.5 Million Extension Award Received
We are pleased to announce that the Feed the Future Innovation Lab Collaborative Research on Grain Legumes, known as the Dry Grain Pulses Collaborative Research Support Program (Pulse CRSP) from 2007 to 2012 and now to be called the Legume Innovation Lab, has been awarded a $24.5 million extension for 4.5 years, through September 29, 2017.
SAWBO featured on Big Ten Network
The research work of Pulse CRSP PI Dr. Barry Pittendrigh (PI-UIUC-1) was featured on the Big Ten Network in February 2013.
Link to main video article
Legume Innovation Lab Directors Interviewed at 2012 World Food Prize
Dr. Irv Widders, director, and Dr. Cynthia Donovan, deputy director, Legume Innovation Lab, were interviewed at the 2012 World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa, in December 2012, on how grain legumes contribute to Feed the Future Strategic Initiatives. Link to Video.
Deadlines
(This column is updated regularly to reflect vital information for researchers and managers connected to PULSE CRSP projects and grants. If nothing is listed, nothing is immediately due.)
Achievements
Advances in agricultural science and technology present opportunities to overcome constraints to achieving adequate nutrition for good health, increasing agricultural productivity for household economic and food security, and for utilizing natural resources in a more sustainable manner. Since 1980, the Bean/Cowpea CRSP (1980–2007) and its successor, the Dry Grain Pulses CRSP (2007-present), funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have striven to achieve positive impacts in these strategic areas through innovative research and training focused on bean and cowpea value chains for the mutual benefit of developing countries in Sub‐Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the United States.
The global mission of the Dry Grain Pulses CRSP (and the previous Bean/Cowpea CRSP) is to leverage the capacities of U.S. universities’ to generate new knowledge and technological outputs through collaborative research and training activities with the ultimate goals of:
- building the human resource base and institutional capacity of national agricultural research systems and agricultural universities and
- enhancing bean and cowpea consumption, utilization, and food security in Sub‐Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the United States.
Click on the links on this page or under “Achievements” in the main menu for highlights and a sample of achievements by the Dry Grain Pulse CRSP and its predecessor, Bean/Cowpea CRSP, in the following areas:
Institutional Capacity Building and Human Resources Development
Outputs, Outcomes, and Impacts
- Impact Brief, 4: Economic
impact of CRSP’s investment in the development and dissemination of improved cowpea
varietal technology: New evidence from Senegal
- Impact Brief, 3: Farmers in West and Central Africa Obtain Economic Benefits from Enhanced Cowpea Storage Technologies
- Impact Brief, 2: Sustaining a Steady Flow of High Yielding, Improved Bean Varieties Through the Bean Research Network in Central America
- Impact Brief, 1: Improved
Bean Varieties in Central America and Ecuador Generate Economic Benefits to Farmers
Global Pulse Research Meetings
Announcements & Opportunities
U.S. Borlaug Summer Institute
The U.S. Borlaug Fellows in Global Food Security Program is offering a two-week learning program for graduate students interested in developing a holistic understanding of the conceptual challenges around global food security with a focus on cross-disciplinary problem solving of real-world development challenges. For more information, click here.
