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Purdue Receives $10 Million Grant For Crop-Saving Effort

Dieudonné Baributsa
/
Purdue International Programs in Agriculture

A $10 million grant will allow Purdue University to help farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa improve their food security and income.

The money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will be used to develop a supply chain to manufacture and distribute crop-saving PICS bags.

College of Agriculture Dean Jay Akridge says the chemical-free storage method developed by Entomology professor Larry Murdock enables farmers to store a variety of major crops for more than one year after harvest.

"Buying bags and handing them to somebody is not solving a problem," Akridge says. "But creating a supply chain that will exist on its own legs once the philanthropic investment is exhausted, that's solving a problem."

The project will be implemented in seven African countries.

Akridge says Purdue is looking for funds from other donors to extend PICS technology through the rest of Africa and South Asia.