Danforth Plant Science Center broadens its international reach

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center announced today that it will expand its international crop research efforts through a newly formed institute.

The center, founded in 1998, has long focused its research efforts on enhancing virus and disease resistance and improving nutrition in staple crops in Africa. But the new Institute for International Crop Improvement will enhance the center’s efforts on additional crops in more countries, including the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh.
The new crops include common beans, millet, sorghum and cowpeas, which are drought resistant and valuable to subsistence farmers, but have little value in the global marketplace and don’t receive the same kind of research attention and resources as commodity crops, such as corn or soybeans.

“By focusing on these drought-tolerant crops, it really is effectively allowing us to help subsistence farmers,” said Paul Anderson, who will direct the new center. “Most areas are getting drier, some are getting wetter, and we’re going to need crops that can withstand that.”

The center was formed through a $10 million gift, given last year by an individual donor who has asked to remain anonymous.

“We’re pretty well funded from a research grant that comes from U.S. AID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, but those are directed at specific projects,” Anderson explained. “But this additional funding allows us to expand our reach. The funding is more discretionary.”

Much of the internationally focused work done at the Danforth Center has been funded by the Gates Foundation, and much of it has been done under the umbrella of the center’s Office of International Programs.

The new institute will group all of the center’s international work into one division. The total staff will number about 25 at first, but grow to about 30.

“Up until now we were entirely dependent on the Gates Foundation,” said Hector Quemada, referring to a handful of specific programs. “The Danforth Center has always has always had an international focus, but the fact that we now have an institute really shows how much more we value that mission.”

The center recently suffered something of a black eye when it was forced to retract a peer-reviewed study on the yam-like crop cassava, which has been a focus of the center’s work and was funded by the Gates Foundation. In attempting to build on the study’s research, scientists at the center discovered that a former colleague fudged data.

The center conducted an internal investigation, finding that the researcher engaged in scientific misconduct.

“You never want to see a setback in a project that has been put out front and center,” said Jim Carrington, director of the center. “I think it’s fair to say this has been extremely difficult. ... It’s fair to say there was a considerable betrayal of trust.”