Feed the Future Innovation Labs, funded by USAID, draw on the expertise of top U.S. universities and developing country research institutions to tackle some of the world’s greatest challenges in agriculture and food security. The Feed the Future Soybean Innovation Lab (SIL), located at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, works to improve food security and nutrition through the advancement of soybean production and utilization in Sub-Saharan Africa. SIL is made up of more than 100 technical soybean experts from across 24 countries, representing a variety of institutions, including national agricultural research systems, universities, the private sector, and development agencies with expertise across the soybean value chain, ranging from breeding and genetics to agronomics, pest and disease management, to mechanization, economics, food science and more. Together with our international partners, we provide evidence-based innovations, tools, and technologies across the value chain to enable sustainable livelihoods through profitable soybean production and utilization across Sub-Saharan Africa.
In regards to SIL’s involvement in this effort…
While the PBEA curricula offers an incredible set of free educational resources for training students, SIL recognized the equal importance and value of Instructor Guides for each course, to empower educators to use the PBEA modules effectively in their classrooms. SIL Education and Training Lead, Dr. Rita Mumm, in collaboration with Dr. Thomas Lubberstedt (Iowa State University), are working together with faculty from the University of Ghana/West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) to coordinate development of these critical Instructor Guides to support African faculty as they roll out these resources to their students
