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RA 00110.pdf - OAR@ICRISAT

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Welcome Address<br />

D.J. Andrews 1<br />

On behalf of Dr. Glenn Vollmar, director of I N T S O R M I L , I welcome you to this joint<br />

International Pearl Millet Workshop with ICRISAT. On a personal note, it is a pleasure for<br />

me to be back among the pearl millet scientists.<br />

While the name ICRISAT is well known to most of you, I should take a moment to explain<br />

I N T S O R M I L : the International Sorghum and Pearl Millet Collaborative Research Support<br />

Program, it is one of a number of CRSPs, all funded by USAID through Title X I I of the<br />

Higher Education Assistance Act of the U.S. Congress. This act aims to mobilize the research<br />

and teaching capacities of U.S. land-grant universities in collaborative research and training<br />

projects with developing countries.<br />

I N T S O R M I L began in 1979, and includes some 35 scientists in the disciplines of breeding,<br />

pathology, entomology, physiology, plant nutrition, food quality and nutritive value, and<br />

socioeconomics in six universities: Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nebraska, Purdue, and<br />

Texas A & M . While I N T S O R M I L has collaborative research projects in a number of countries,<br />

it has staff in Botswana, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Niger, and Sudan. Over<br />

100 students have received graduate training. While pearl millet is not yet a commercial grain<br />

crop in the U.S. (although we believe it can be developed into one), it is receiving considerable<br />

attention in I N T S O R M I L . This builds on the previous U S A I D initiative of funding pearl<br />

millet breeding at Kansas State University, begun in 1971.<br />

ICRISAT and I N T S O R M I L obviously have common interests and seek to develop complementary<br />

research, for example, the proposed collaborative research on the problems of<br />

sorghum and millet production on the acid soils in the SADCC region. This workshop is the<br />

most recent in a number of workshops jointly sponsored by ICRISAT and INTSORMIL.<br />

Workshops like this are fundamental to the progress of research on the crop. We need to<br />

plan future joint research. I am sure you will go home from this meeting not only with renewed<br />

enthusiasm knowing what is possible with this very interesting plant with new ideas for your<br />

own research, but also with the ultimate aim we all have: to find ways for farmers to reliably<br />

produce more food from this important crop.<br />

Without further preamble, let me once again welcome you to this Workshop.<br />

1. Plant Breeder, 279, Plant Sciences, East Campus, UNL, Lincoln, NE 68583-0910, USA.<br />

xi

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