ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University today announced a $26.8 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to launch a broad-based global partnership to combat a deadly wheat disease that poses an enormous threat to global food security. The Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project will bring together 15 partner institutions to combat the emergence of deadly new variants of stem rust that can spread quickly, reducing healthy wheat to broken, shriveled stems. The partners will focus on developing improved rust resistant wheat varieties to protect resource-poor farmers and consumers from catastrophic crop losses in vulnerable regions, particularly India, but also Pakistan, East Africa, China, the Middle East, and North Africa.
