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UGA’s Peanut Innovation Lab gets $15 million for international research

WUGA
Published April 14, 2023 at 9:38 AM EDT
Danielle Ama Essandoh, a Ghanaian student studying at Makerere University, works in a greenhouse on a research project in Uganda led by UGA’s Soraya Leal-Bertioli in 2021. Essandoh completed a master’s degree and is now working toward a doctorate at UGA.
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Danielle Ama Essandoh, a Ghanaian student studying at Makerere University, works in a greenhouse on a research project in Uganda led by UGA’s Soraya Leal-Bertioli in 2021. Essandoh completed a master’s degree and is now working toward a doctorate at UGA.
Allison Floyd
Dave Hoisington, the director of the Peanut Innovation Lab, and David Okello, the chief groundnut breeder in Uganda, inspect a field in Malawi. Okello leads a project to understand the genetic diversity of peanuts grown in Eastern and Southern Africa.
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Dave Hoisington, the director of the Peanut Innovation Lab, and David Okello, the chief groundnut breeder in Uganda, inspect a field in Malawi. Okello leads a project to understand the genetic diversity of peanuts grown in Eastern and Southern Africa.
Allison Floyd
Women farmers in Malawi earlier this year share their experiences growing peanuts, or groundnuts, as they are called in the Southern Africa country.
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Women farmers in Malawi earlier this year share their experiences growing peanuts, or groundnuts, as they are called in the Southern Africa country.
Allison Floyd
Peanut Innovation Lab Assistant Director Jamie Rhoads leads a discussion in Ghana in 2022, as a group of researchers work to create a communications plan for the Ghana Groundnut Working Group, a professional organization the innovation lab helped to organize.
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Peanut Innovation Lab Assistant Director Jamie Rhoads leads a discussion in Ghana in 2022, as a group of researchers work to create a communications plan for the Ghana Groundnut Working Group, a professional organization the innovation lab helped to organize.
Allison Floyd

A locally-led research program received $15 million and a five-year extension for their work on peanut farming.

The Feed the Future Peanut Innovation Lab for Peanut, housed by the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) is backed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Over the next five years, the lab plans to develop stronger peanut plant varieties, improve peanut processing machines and products, create educational programs for farmers and processors, and to research gender and age dynamics in the farming industry.

Since 2018, the Peanut Innovation Lab has run two dozen research projects led by UGA scientists and researchers across a dozen U.S. universities. The lab’s field work is currently operating in Senegal, Ghana, Uganda, and Malawi.
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