On Nov. 23, U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran met with farmers and agricultural thought leaders for a farm tour highlighting the importance of agricultural research for increasing global food security.
The event, held at Lund Farms in Salina, also included Martin Draper, associate dean for research and graduate programs at Kansas State University’s College of Agriculture; Jagger Harvey, director of the K-State Feed the Future Innovation Lab for the Reduction of Post-Harvest Loss; Tim Dalton, director of the K-State Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sorghum and Millet; and David Hong, director of government affairs at Farm Journal Foundation.
The tour showcased how cutting-edge agricultural research is helping farmers at home and abroad increase their crop yields, prevent post-harvest losses, and ultimately improve food security for people around the world.
The tour demonstrated the work of K-State’s Feed the Future Innovation Labs, which are supported by USAID’s global food security initiative Feed the Future. The labs are a main mechanism to harness research expertise at U.S. land-grant universities, and the U.S. national research system as a whole, by fostering effective international partnerships with leading U.S. researchers and other partners such as the CGIAR international research system. K-State is home to four Innovation Labs, the most of any other university.