Jamie KleinHistory of INTSORMIL EDIT THISDraft 4August 19, 2010

“Who in the room has been trained through INTSORMIL?” Bruce Hamaker

asked’ his voice amplified by microphone to fill the large conference room.

Seventeen people raised one hand, some jokingly raised two. Some of them were

American, and some were from Burkina Faso and other countries in West Africa. It was

the first day for the INTSOMRIL West Africa meeting at the Hotel Palm Beach in

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and the seventeen scientists with raised hands had either

received training or earned an academic degree because of INTSORMIL.

In its 30 years of existence, INTSORMIL has helped hundreds of other students

and scientists earn advanced degrees, helped farmers in Africa and Central America plant

and grow sorghum and other grains and program scientists have plans to continue

working toward international food security, including food sciences efforts like making

bread or beer from sorghum.

Headquartered at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s east campus,

INTSORMIL offices are surrounded by agricultural and math and sciences buildings.

Nebraska squirrels run by the building in the summer and white snow usually falls thickly

in the winter. INTSORMIL has been at UNL since 1979, when the Collaborative

Research Support Program was established.

Several INTSORMIL staff members work out of the building, like Dr. John Yohe

the program director, and Joan Frederick, the program manager. Some INTSORMIL

scientists work at UNL, but other scientists work at seven U.S. universities including

Kansas State University, Ohio State University, Purdue University, Texas A&M

University and West Texas A&M University. Scientists at the U.S. Department of

Agriculture and several countries in Central America and Africa also collaborate with

INTSORMIL.

Dr. Yohe, who has been program director for 22 years, said scientists and staff

have worked hard for the last 30 years.

In 1984, Dr. Earl Yang, the first INTSORMIL program director, retired. At that

time, INTSORMIL contacted Yohe, who worked for USAID as a project officer at the

time, and asked if he would consider moving to Nebraska to be the program’s director.

Another man came in for a few years, but by 1988 Yohe was named director.

According to its website, INTSORMIL’s vision is “to improve food security,

enhance farm income and improve economic activity in the major sorghum and pearl

millet producing countries in Africa and Central America.”

INTSORMIL also has other goals—like working and maintaining relationships

with master’s or doctorate students. The program has trained 1,152 collaborating

scientists, which include U.S. students and other students from around the world

INTSORMIL funded research has led to several success stories.

About 20 years ago in Zambia, farmers told Zambia Agricultural Research

Institute scientists (many who collaborate with INTSORMIL) about their problems with

birds in the fields, said Percy Muuka, a plant breeder with ZARI. Pesky birds would

come to their fields and peck away pearl millet grain, depleting much of the yield.

Farmers challenged ZARI scientists and plant breeders to help them find a better

way of dealing with birds. At first, plant breeders suggested farmers in the same area

plant pearl millet at the same time—this way the birds would eat a little bit of grain from

each field and not deplete one farmer’s yield. All the while, plant breeders were

conducting research to develop another way to control the birds, Muuka said.

This research led to the creation of a pearl millet that grows with bristles in the

panicle. Now when birds try to peck out the grain, the bristles poke their eyes. The bird

may try again, but will soon grow irritated and find something else to eat. The ZARI

scientists met the farmer’s challenge.

Yohe said Dr. Gebisa Ejeta, an agronomy professor at Purdue University and an

INTSORMIL scientist, contributed greatly to INTSORMIL’s mission with his research

on striga.

Striga is a major parasitic weed of sorghum and pearl millet in Africa, and even in

India and other parts of the world where sorghum is grown. In the late 1950s, striga also

attacked corn. There was a striga outbreak on corn in North Carolina and the area was

quarantined. Corn products couldn’t be exported in or out, Yohe said.

Ejeta’s work earned him the World Food Prize in 2009.

Other scientists, like Dr. Loyd Rooney at Texas A&M University and Bruce

Hamaker at Purdue University are working with national programs in West Africa on

processing and marketing of sorghum food products. Sorghum and pearl millet both are

traditional historic crops in Africa. Sorghum and pearl millet both have their origins in

Africa.

A section here about INTSORMIL’s budget changes over the years and how that

has affected how many countries they have done research in or where their research has

been focused. INTSORMIL is funded in five-year increments. Yohe said he and his

staff are anticipating INTSORMIL will be funded for another five years, from Sept.

30, 2011 to Sept. 29, 2016.

From 2006 to 2011 INTSORMIL experienced a 33 percent reduction in its

budget. But in the past year, beginning September 30 of 2009 USAID gave INSTORMIL

the ability to increase their budget, which has allowed more research in West Africa. But

with inflation, the program hasn’t been able to restore all of its previous research

endeavors.

An economic impact study done by Battelle Technology Partnership Practice :

The Business of Innovation in 2006 said, “INTSORMIL is presently having a significant

impact through projects at the pilot or individual village level—the next step must be to

roll these impacts out to regional and national scales.”

Battelle is comprised of a team of analysts and practitioners in technology-based

economic development, according to its website. They analyze and assess the impact and

direction of technology programs and services.

INTSORMIL scientists have worked in plant breeding, plant pathology,

entomology, food science and realization.

“We’ve done a lot of unique things over the years. We’ve had some really

outstanding science,” Yohe said.

INTSORMIL’s next focus is visibility. Bruce Hamaker, an INTSORMIL

coordinator for West Africa, said one of the first steps toward a more recognizable

program is making INTSORMIL’s logo prominent on INTSORMIL products—like bags

of grains or INTSORMIL-bought vehicles.

At the West Africa conference, scientists discussed other ways to market

INTSORMIL’s work, which included discussing a report being written for non-scientists

about INTSORMIL.

Hamaker also talked about the history of INTSORMIL in West Africa. He said

projects started in Niger and Mali in the early 1980s and training was the main

component in the two countries. The program has since grown to include germplasm

transfers, creating striga resistant sorghum lines and deep-rooted relationships between

principle investigators and their collaborators.

“That’s very unusual, I should say, for a development project to last that long,”

Hamaker said.