By Nick McClintock

BLOOMINGTON- A group of five researchers, including Illinois Wesleyan University’s William Munro, have received a nearly $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study agriculture in Africa.

The five year long project being called the “Green Revolution for Africa” will be helping farmers in sub-Saharan Africa not only increase the yield and quality of their crop, but also sell it in larger markets. Munro said another focus of the project will be on women farmers.

“There has long been a rhetoric, we have to focus on women.” Munro said. “And the reason for that is women play a key role in African agriculture, and in many cases the women are the farmers.”

Several philanthropic operations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, are helping to fund the effort to combat hunger and malnutrition in Africa. In 2014, the highest malnutrition rates in the world were centered in rural sub-Saharan Africa, according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization’s most recent estimate. “The US government is playing a very large role in this, the G8 is playing a large role.” Munro said. “It’s kind of a coordinated effort to get down on the ground, find out how things are unfolding.”

Munro’s work will include interviews with policy makers in the United States and Africa, as well as research the roles of African multilateral organizations on the ground.

Nick McClintock can be reached at [email protected].