Ethiopian scientist and plant breeder Gebisa Ejeta has been awarded the 2009 World Food Prize for his work on drought and weed-resistant varieties of sorghum. Ejeta, who is only the second African to win the food prize, will receive the award on October 15, in a ceremony held by the Word Food Prize Foundation in Iowa.

President of the foundation, former U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia, Kenneth Quinn, spoke out at the State Department Event where the winner was announced along with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Quinn said;

He (Ejeta), developed and introduced the first sorghum hybrid in Africa in the early 1980s, which was drought tolerant and produced significantly higher yields”(…) “In the 1990s, he conquered the greatest biological constraint to cereal production in Africa-the deadly weed Stringa. Having discovered the bio-chemical basis of Striga’s parasitic relationship with sorghum, our laureate’s breeding programme at Purdue produced many sorghum varieties resistant to drought and to Striga with yields 10 times greater than local varieties.

Hillary Clinton noted that Ejeta’s drive has not only been to focus on science, but he has taken his work further to use it as a tool for development, working actively on getting his improved seeds into the hands and control of African and Indian farmers.

Ejeta worries that development in impoverished countries has stalled with a lack of funding. He also points out the problem of aid being too focused on short-term emergency food aid, as Farming First’s Dr. Lindiwe Sibanda discussed at a UNCSD conference in February 2009.  For example, the United States spends 20 times more on food aid to Africa than it does on programmes that could boost African food production.

Speaking at the State Department Event, Hillary Clinton noted:

The Obama administration is committed to providing leadership in developing a new global approach to hunger. For too long, our primary response has been to send emergency aid when the crisis is at its worst. This saves lives, but doesn’t address hunger’s root causes. It is at best a short-term fix. So we will support the creation of effective, sustainable farming systems in regions around the world where current methods are not working.