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Intsormil’S Global Impact: A Revolution In West African Sorghum Production, Intsormil

INTSORMIL Impacts and Bulletins

Sorghum and pearl millet are the staple grains for millions of people around the world, especially those residing in the semiarid margins of agricultural sustainability. For this reason, INTSORMIL has been working in the semiarid regions of Africa and Central America where it has been helping sorghum and millet farmers achieve the status of surplus grain production and the economic, social and health benefits thus provided. What impact has INTSORMIL had on the lives of these sorghum and millet farmers?

To determine the global impact of the USAID funded INTSORMIL program, Battelle, an independent agency, was chosen to conduct an …

University Research Program Sees Drop In Funding, Zach Pluhacek

INTSORMIL Impacts and Bulletins

A program headquartered at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln that uses science to assist economically stressed nations will receive $9 million throughout five years through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The agreement, announced Friday morning by the UNL Office of Research and Graduate Studies, will significantly decrease the annual funding the International Sorghum and Millet Collaborative Research Support Program, or INTSORMIL, has received in recent years.

Sorghum Flour In The El Salvador Baking Industry, Intsormil

INTSORMIL Impacts and Bulletins

The El Salvador baking industry is dependent on imported wheat which results in a loss of valuable foreign exchange. In response, CENTA (Centro Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria y Forestal) scientists with support from INTSORMIL have produced sorghum varieties which have the physical and chemical qualities making them suitable for flour which can be used as a partial substitute for wheat flour in the baking industry, thus decreasing the cost of baked goods. CENTA food technician, Fidelia Herrera pioneered the use of sorghum flour in El Salvador and began helping village bakers utilize sorghum flour back in the 70’s.

To test …

Harina De Sorgo En La Industria Panificadora De El Salvador, Intsormil

INTSORMIL Impacts and Bulletins

La industria panificadora de El Salvador depende de las importaciones de trigo, lo cual ocasiona una pérdida considerable de divisas. En respuesta a esto, los investigadores del Centro Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria y Forestal (CENTA) con ayuda del INTSORMIL han venido produciendo variedades de sorgo con cualidades físicas y químicas adecuadas para sustituir parcialmente la harina de trigo, reduciendo de esta manera los costos de producción de las panaderías. La Señora Fidelia Herrera, técnologa del CENTA fue la primera en tomar el liderazgo sobre la necesidad del uso de la harina de sorgo en El Salvador, al ayudar durante los …

Panadería “Pan Rey,” El Salvador Prueba Harina De Sorgo, Intsormil

INTSORMIL Impacts and Bulletins

Pan Rey, una panadería grande y comercializada en Quezaltepeque, El Salvador C. A. viene experimentando con la harina de sorgo como substituto de la harina de trigo, y en colaboración con el Laboratorio de Tecnología de Alimentos del CENTA (Centro Nacional de Tecnología agropecuaria) con el fín de promover el uso de la harina de sorgo en las panaderías grandes. Muchas de las panaderías pequeñas del sector rural, como la panadería de Clemencia Barrera en San Rafael Cedros, El Salvador (ver Reporte No.5 de INTSORMIL), han substituido la harina de trigo por la de sorgo durante muchos años. Sin embargo, …

Pan Rey Bakery, El Salvador Tests Sorghum Flour, Intsormil

INTSORMIL Impacts and Bulletins

Pan Rey, the “Bread King,” a large commercial bakery located at Quezaltepeque, El Salvador is testing sorghum flour as a substitute for wheat. The Pan Rey Bakery collaborates with the CENTA Food Technology Laboratory in a project to promote the use of sorghum flour in large bakeries. Many small, village level bakeries, such as the bakery of Clemencia Barrera in San Rafael Cedro, El Salvador (see INTSORMIL Report No. 5), have been using sorghum flour as a substitute for wheat for many years. However, use of sorghum flour on a large scale in the big commercial bakeries, such as Pan …

Intsormil Crsp: Sorghum, Millet And Other Grains Collaborative Research Support Program: Leader With Associates Cooperative Agreement No. Eep-A-00-06-0016-00; Award From The U.S. Agency For International Development To The University Of Nebraska-Lincoln, Joseph Schmidt

INTSORMIL Scientific Publications

Pursuant to the authority contained in the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) hereby awards to University of Nebraska - Lincoln (hereinafter referred to as the "Recipient"), the sum of $9,000,000.00 to provide support for a program in Sorghum, Millet, and Other Grains Collaborative Research Support Program as described in the Schedule of this award and in Attachment B, entitled "Program Description."

This Leader with Associates Cooperative Agreement is effective and obligation is made as of 09-30-2006 and shall apply to expenditures made by the Recipient in furtherance of program objectives during …

Harina De Sorgo Como Sustituto Del Trigo En Panaderías Rurales De El Salvador, Intsormil

INTSORMIL Impacts and Bulletins

El grano de sorgo está generando mucho interés en el escenario de la comida sana. Por que? La respuesta es muy sencilla: la harina de grano de sorgo, NO CONTIENE GLUTEN. Esto es muy importante para aquellas personas intolerantes al gluten (padecimiento celíaco). El sorgo contiene un alto contenido de antioxidantes (que ayudan a prevenir el cáncer) y fibra insoluble (lenta digestibilidad), con cantidades relativamente pequeñas de fibra soluble. La proteína y el almidón del endospermo del sorgo son digeridos más lentamente si se les compara con otros cereales. El bajo porcentaje de digestibilidad en los productos preparados a base …

Sorghum Flour As A Substitute For Wheat In El Salvador Village Bakeries, Intsormil

INTSORMIL Impacts and Bulletins

Grain sorghum is generating new excitement on the health food scene. Why? For one reason, flour milled from grain sorghum has NO GLUTEN! That’s important to those people with an intolerance to gluten-containing products (Celiac disease). Sorghum is high in antioxidants (cancer prevention) and insoluble fiber (slowly digested), with relatively small amounts of soluble fiber. The protein and starch in sorghum endosperm are more slowly digested than other cereals. The slower rate of digestibility of sorghum products may be beneficial to diabetics.

So how is sorghum flour used in baking? It can be substituted for wheat, rice or soybean flour …

Intsormil: International Expertise Benefits U.S. Sorghum And Pearl Millet Producers, Intsormil

INTSORMIL Impacts and Bulletins

While USAID is focused on international assistance and outreach, the Collaborative Research Support Programs (CRSPs) also benefit farmers in the United States. By establishing strong relationships with national agricultural research systems in other nations, U.S. research collaborators gain access to knowledge and expertise in crops native to these countries. Thus, the CRSPs effectively operate as a two way street, extending U.S. scientific and research expertise to collaborating nations while receiving valuable insight and access to germplasm from other production environments for U.S. agricultural deployment.

INTSORMIL CRSP principal investigators, located at leading U.S. universities (Kansas State, Mississippi State, Nebraska, Purdue, Texas …

Creating New Markets For African Sorghum Farmers, Intsormil

INTSORMIL Impacts and Bulletins

Lack of international markets for locally grown cereals such as sorghum is a major constraint to economic development for West African farmers. Lack of international markets has traditionally resulted in price declines in normal and good weather years since consumers can only eat so much of a staple. Once consumers have enough of the staple, prices collapse, as there are no other markets. These price declines discourage farmers from using higher input levels and therefore achieving productivity gains. Hence, facilitating the growth of the food and feed processing industries for the basic staples is critical for the rapid economic growth …

Coordinated Diabrotica Genetics Research: Accelerating Progress On An Urgent Insect Pest Problem, Thomas W. Sappington, Blair D. Siegfried, Thomas Guillemaud

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Diabrotica spp. (western, northern, and Mexican corn rootworms) represent the main pest complex of continuous field corn, Zea mays (L.), in North America. The western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, also has become the main pest of continuous corn in Central and Southeastern Europe since its introduction near Belgrade 15–20 years ago, and it represents a major risk to Western Europe. It has already caused economic losses in Eastern Europe, and Western countries such as France have committed large expenditures for containment and/or eradication.

Rootworm larvae feed on corn roots, and damaged plants are more susceptible to drought and …

Effects Of Aphid (Homoptera) Abundance And Surrounding Vegetation On The Encounter Rate Of Coccinellidae (Coleoptera), Chrysopidae (Neuroptera), And Nabidae (Hemiptera) In Alfalfa, James C. Kriz, Stephen D. Danielson, James R. Brandle, Erin E. Blankenship, Geoff M. Henebry

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Predaceous insect encounter rate was measured in 21 southeast Nebraska alfalfa fields through weekly sweep net sampling during 2002-03. The most frequently encountered predaceous insect families were Coccinellidae (Coleoptera), Nabidae (Hemiptera), and Chrysopidae (Neuroptera). The study used multiple regression analysis to examine the effect of aphid abundance and the surrounding vegetative patch composition on predaceous insect abundance. In 2002, Hippodamia parenthesis Say was encountered more frequently in fields with lower aphid abundances, and Hippodamia convergens Guerin-Meneville, Coccinella septempunctata L., and Nabis americoferus Carayon were encountered more frequently in fields with higher aphid abundances. In 2003, Coleomegilla maculata DeGeer was encountered …

Intsormil Marketing Strategies Increase Farm Income And Promote Technology Introduction In West Africa, Intsormil

INTSORMIL Impacts and Bulletins

The World Bank’s 2006 Human Development Report ranks Niger as the world’s second-poorest nation. Most of its 11 million citizens live in semi-arid grasslands and survive on subsistence cultivation of millet, sorghum, and other drought-resistant crops. Producers sell their crops in September and October, the peak months of the harvest season, when local markets can be flooded with grain and prices are low. These farmers often must then purchase additional food supplies in the “hungry months” of June and July when food grains reach much higher prices.

INTSORMIL’s West Africa Marketing-Processing Project, funded by USAID/WARP, is accelerating the adoption of …

Intsormil Responds To Emerging Grain Markets In West Africa, Intsormil

INTSORMIL Impacts and Bulletins

According to Lloyd Rooney, Distinguished Professor of Food Science at Texas A&M, “A consistent, high quality grain supply is the first prerequisite for the development of the food processing industry in West Africa.” The International Sorghum and Millet (INTSORMIL) Collaborative Research Support Program in West Africa is helping farmers produce a consistent supply of high quality sorghum and millet that meets the requirements of industry.

INTSORMIL’s Marketing-Processing Project, funded by USAID/WARP and directed by Botorou Ouendeba, Nigerien millet breeder and former Coordinator of the West and Central African Millet Research Network is responding to the emerging market demand by promoting …

2006 Spring Seed Book, Nebraska Crop Improvement Association

Nebraska Crop Improvement Association Seed Guides

FOUNDATION SEED

PLANT VARIETY PROTECTION ACT and HOW IT BENEFITS YOU!

PERENNIAL FORAGE GRASSES

TURFGRASSES

TURFGRASS SOD

SOYBEANS

SOYBEAN VARIETY CHARACTERISTICS - 2006

OAT VARIETY CHARACTERISTICS - 2006

OATS

SPRING BARLEY

SPRING TRITICALE

MILLET

HYBRID SEED CORN

NEBRASKA SEED QUALITY ASSURANCE® PROGRAM

SOYBEANS BUYERS’ NOTICE

APPROVED SEED CONDITIONERS

CUSTOM CERTIFIED CONDITIONERS

2005 NCIA MEMBERS

2006 Fall Seed Book, Nebraska Crop Improvement Association

Nebraska Crop Improvement Association Seed Guides

FOUNDATION SEED

WINTER WHEAT VARIETY CHARACTERISTICS - 2006

HARD RED WINTER WHEAT

HARD WHITE WINTER WHEAT

TRITICALE

LANDSCAPE QUALITY TURFGRASS SOD

TURFGRASSES

COOL-SEASON GRASSES

APPROVED SEED CONDITIONERS

CUSTOM CERTIFIED CONDITIONERS

2006 NCIA MEMBERS

Evaluation Of The Single Kernel Characterization System (Skcs) For Measurement Of Sorghum Grain Attributes, S. R. Bean, O. K. Chung, M. R. Tuinstra, Jeffrey F. Pedersen, J. Erpelding

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The single kernel characterization system (SKCS) has been widely used in the wheat industry, and SKCS parameters have been linked to end-use quality in wheat. The SKCS has promise as a tool for evaluating sorghum grain quality. However, the SKCS was designed to analyze wheat, which has a different kernel structure from sorghum. To gain a better understanding of the meaning of SKCS predictions for grain sorghum, individual sorghum grains were measured for length, width, thickness (diameter), and weight by laboratory methods and by the SKCS. SKCS predictions for kernel weight and thickness were highly correlated to laboratory measurements. However, …

Chemical Composition And Response To Dilute-Acid Pretreatment And Enzymatic Saccharification Of Alfalfa, Reed Canarygrass, And Switchgrass, Bruce S. Dien, Hans-Joachim G. Jung, Kenneth P. Vogel, Michael D. Casler, Joann F. S. Lamb, Loren Iten, Robert C. Mitchell, Gautum Sarath

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Alfalfa stems, reed canarygrass, and switchgrass; perennial herbaceous species that have potential as biomass energy crops in temperate regions; were evaluated for their bioconversion potential as energy crops. Each forage species was harvested at two or three maturity stages and analyzed for carbohydrates, lignin, protein, lipid, organic acids, and mineral composition. The biomass samples were also evaluated for sugar yields following pretreatment with dilute sulfuric followed by enzymatic saccharification using a commercial cellulase preparation. Total carbohydrate content of the plants varied from 518 to 655 g kg^-1 dry matter (DM) and cellulose concentration from 209 to 322 g kg …

Mutations In Arabidopsis Yellow Stripe-Like1 And Yellow Stripe-Like3 Reveal Their Roles In Metal Ion Homeostasis And Loading Of Metal Ions In Seeds, Brian M. Waters, Heng-Hsuan Chu, Raymond J. Didonato, Louis A. Roberts, Robynn B. Eisley, Brett Lahner, David E. Salt, Elsbeth L. Walker

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Here, we describe two members of the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) Yellow Stripe-Like (YSL) family, AtYSL1 and AtYSL3. The YSL1 and YSL3 proteins are members of the oligopeptide transporter family and are predicted to be integral membrane proteins. YSL1 and YSL3 are similar to the maize (Zea mays) YS1 phytosiderophore transporter (ZmYS1) and the AtYSL2 iron (Fe)-nicotianamine transporter, and are predicted to transport metal-nicotianamine complexes into cells. YSL1 and YSL3 mRNAs are expressed in both root and shoot tissues, and both are regulated in response to the Fe status of the plant. β-Glucuronidase reporter expression, driven by …

Soybean Cultivars Resulted From More Recombination Events Than Unselected Lines In The Same Population, T. R. Stefaniak, D. L. Hyten Jr., V. R. Pantalone, A. Klarer, T. W. Pfeiffer

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The selection of superior adapted cultivars has contributed to the doubling of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] yields in the USA since 1930. Genetic variation was required for this selection to be effective. The objective of this study was to evaluate the importance of homologous chromosome meiotic recombination in the creation of soybean cultivars. A set of 10 adapted high-yielding cultivars selected from the cross ‘Williams’ × ‘Essex’ was com-pared with a set of 156 random recombinant inbred lines (RILs) from the same population. Crossover events were identified using 143 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers span-ning all 20 soybean …

Science-Based Organic Farming 2006: Toward Local And Secure Food Systems, Charles A. Francis, Katja Koehler-Cole, Twyla Hansen, Peter Skelton

Publications from the Center for Applied Rural Innovation (CARI)

Organic farming includes growing food and fiber—animals, agronomic crops, horticultural fruits and vegetables, related products—as one dynamic and rapidly evolving component of our complex U.S. food system. Even as more farmers are moving toward organic certification and participation in an environmentally sound and economically lucrative market, questions arise about the long-term social impacts and sustainability of a set of practices that has gone from a movement to an industry. Consolidations in the organic trade have brought multinational corporations to the table, as they have observed a grassroots activity that has grown by 20% per year for the past two decades, …

Snp-Phage – High Throughput Snp Discovery Pipeline, Lakshmi K. Matukumalli, John J. Grefenstette, David L. Hyten, Ik-Young Choi, Perry B. Cregan, Curt P. Van Tassell

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Background: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as defined here are single base sequence changes or short insertion/deletions between or within individuals of a given species. As a result of their abundance and the availability of high throughput analysis technologies SNP markers have begun to replace other traditional markers such as restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs), amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs) and simple sequence repeats (SSRs or microsatellite) markers for fine mapping and association studies in several species. For SNP discovery from chromatogram data, several bioinformatics programs have to be combined to generate an analysis pipeline. Results have to be stored in …

Application Of Machine Learning In Snp Discovery, Lakshmi K. Matukumalli, John J. Grefenstette, David L. Hyten, Ik-Young Choi, Perry B. Cregan, Curtis P. Van Tassell

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Background: Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) constitute more than 90% of the genetic variation, and hence can account for most trait differences among individuals in a given species. Polymorphism detection software PolyBayes and PolyPhred give high false positive SNP predictions even with stringent parameter values. We developed a machine learning (ML) method to augment PolyBayes to improve its prediction accuracy. ML methods have also been successfully applied to other bioinformatics problems in predicting genes, promoters, transcription factor binding sites and protein structures. Results: The ML program C4.5 was applied to a set of features in order to build a SNP classifier …

Impacts Of Genetic Bottlenecks On Soybean Genome Diversity, D. L. Hyten, Qijian Song, Youlin Zhu, Ik-Young Choi, Randall L. Nelson, Jose M. Costa, James E. Specht, Randy C. Shoemaker, Perry B. Cregan

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Soybean has undergone several genetic bottlenecks. These include domestication in Asia to produce numerous Asian landraces, introduction of relatively few landraces to North America, and then selective breeding over the past 75 years. It is presumed that these three human-mediated events have reduced genetic diversity. We sequenced 111 fragments from 102 genes in four soybean populations representing the populations before and after genetic bottlenecks. We show that soybean has lost many rare sequence variants and has undergone numerous allele frequency changes throughout its history. Although soybean genetic diversity has been eroded by human selection after domestication, it is notable that …

Ethylene Could Influence Ferric Reductase, Iron Transporter, And H+-Atpase Gene Expression By Affecting Fer (Or Fer-Like) Gene Activity, Carlos Lucera, Brian M. Waters, Francisco Javier Romera, María José García, María Morales, Esteban Alcántara, Rafael Pérez-Vicente

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

In previous works, it has been shown, by using ethylene inhibitors and precursors, that ethylene could participate in the regulation of the enhanced ferric reductase activity of Fe-deficient Strategy I plants. However, it was not known whether ethylene regulates the ferric reductase gene expression or other aspects related to this activity. This paper is a study of the effects of ethylene inhibitors and precursors on the expression of the genes encoding the ferric reductases and iron transporters of Arabidopsis thaliana (FRO2 and IRT1) and Lycopersicon esculentum (= Solanum lycopersicum) (FRO1 and IRT1) plants. The effects …