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Field trial of gene-edited rice for drought tolerance 

Year Awarded  2023

FFAR award amount   $25,000

Total award amount   $50,000

Location   Berkeley, CA

Matching Funders   Good Ventures Foundation

Grantee Institution   University of California Berkeley

Rice is one of the world’s most important staple crops and some varieties are extremely water intensive. More frequent occurrences of severe drought threaten rice production as well as global nutritional security. University of California, Berkeley, researchers are conducting field trials of gene-edited rice lines—groups of similar plants—that in laboratory settings conserve more water more efficiently than non-edited, or wild-type, rice.

Increasing Drought Tolerance in Rice 

Elucidating the Genetic Basis for Sub-Tropical Flowering in Hemp 

Year Awarded  2023

Total award amount   $840,000

Location   Ithaca, NY

Grantee Institution   Cornell University

Hemp growers have been largely limited to varieties of hemp cultivated in Canada or Europe, but these crops do not thrive in all growing regions of the U.S. Cornell University researchers aim to understand the genetic basis of photoperiod threshold, which is the amount of light a plant needs to achieve flowering and other types of development. Researchers will also use whole genome sequencing to understand the genetic basis for flowering time variation and develop molecular markers to speed breeding for southern-adapted cultivars. These selections will be further bred to produce cultivars with a photoperiod matched to North Carolina, Florida and similar locations.

Breeding & Characterizing New Cultivars of Grain & Fiber Hemp 

Year Awarded  2023

FFAR award amount   $750,000

Total award amount   $1,500,000

Location   Ithaca, NY

Matching Funders   International Hemp

Grantee Institution   Cornell University

Hemp growers have been largely limited to varieties of hemp cultivated in Canada or Europe, but these crops do not thrive in all growing regions of the U.S. Cornell University researchers are also developing varieties of hemp that will deliver higher yields, especially at lower latitudes in the U.S. The research team is developing new hemp cultivars using marker-assisted selection that show promise in southern latitudes and have specific desirable traits. Cornell breeders are selecting for late-flowering individuals grown in trials in New York, North Carolina and Florida that also produce high yields of CBD, which has never been achieved before.

Improving Yields & Traits in U.S. Hemp Crops 

Accelerating Crop Development with Improved Haploid Fertility 

Breakthrough for Accelerated Development of Crops of the Future

Indigenous Farmers are Leading a “New Green Revolution” Focused on Hemp 

James DeDecker, Director, Michigan State University – Upper Peninsula Research and Extension Center Mary Donner, Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians – Ziibimijwang Farm Executive Director and Tribal Citizen

Cattle Industry Consortium Funds Research Aimed at Reducing Enteric Methane Emissions 

Integrating Genomics, Milk Spectrometry & Microbial Manipulations to Mitigate Enteric Methane Emissions from Dairy Cattle 

Year Awarded  2023

FFAR award amount   $2,301,499

Total award amount   $3,301,496

Location   Madison, WI

Matching Funders   Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, ADM, the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB), Elanco, Genus plc, JBS USA, the National Dairy Herd Information Association, Nestlé and the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre (NZAGRC)

Grantee Institution   University of Wisconsin–Madison

Cows and other ruminant animals produce enteric methane as part of their natural digestive process. This methane is the single largest source of direct greenhouse gases in the dairy sector. University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers are combining interventions addressing breeding, data on milk composition and rumen microbes to selectively breed U.S. dairy cattle with lower emissions.