Dr Gebisa Ejeta of Ethiopia has been selected as the winner of the 2009 World Food Prize, with a $250,000 cash award. This was announced by the Secretary of State, Mrs. Hilary Clinton, during her speech in Washington, D.C. on behalf of the US Department of Agriculture.
He is recognized for his remarkable contributions in sorghum production, which contributed to enhanced food supply to hundreds of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa. Sorghum is one of the world’s five principal cereal grains. One of the articles on his biography described him from childhood, as a boy from a one-room thatched hut in rural Ethiopia to the height of scientific acclaim as a distinguished professor, plant breeder, and geneticist at Purdue University.
One of his major scientific research contributions is on sorghum plant/seed, a staple food in the diet of over 500 million people living in Central and West African (sub-Saharan) subregions, began in Ethiopia in the 1970s. He will formally receive the award at the World Food ceremony on October 15, 2005, at the Iowa State capitol.
Source: examiner.com
