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Podcasts Take Two
US agency aims to create more resilient rice, wheat crops
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May 27, 2013
Listen • 5:21
US agency aims to create more resilient rice, wheat crops
Recently the US Agency for International Development announced a new project designed to combat world hunger. They would support research to develop wheat and rice seeds that were resistant to extreme heat and high levels of salt.
Andrea Crawford surveys the two-week old-wheat field on her farm in Agoura Hills.
A California wheat farmer surveys her early crops. In much of the world, this period of the crop's growth is vulnerable to extreme heat ... researchers are trying to change that.
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Jennifer Sharpe
)

Recently the US Agency for International Development announced a new project designed to combat world hunger. They would support research to develop wheat and rice seeds that were resistant to extreme heat and high levels of salt.

The US Agency for International Development recently announced a new project designed to combat world hunger.

The agency announced that they would support research to develop wheat and rice seeds that were resistant to extreme heat and high levels of salt. Both heat and the salt content in soil and water can have a dramatic affect on the output of crop yields, but many are skeptical that the project will yield actionable results.

Dr. Sahara Moon Chapotin, Research Division Chief at USAID Bureau for Food Security, joins the show to explain how this new crop will work.