Hageen Dura-1 Striga-resistant sorghum hybrid
Sorgo híbrido Hageen Dura-1 tolerante a la sequía (Ejeta)
- Date
- 1983 · confidence high
- Place
- Wad Madani, Gezira State, Sudan
- Credited to
- Gebisa Ejeta (Purdue University and the Sudan Agricultural Research Corporation)
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
The Ethiopian Gebisa Ejeta developed and released in Sudan in 1994 the sorghum hybrid Hageen Dura-1, the first with commercial resistance to the parasitic weed Striga and to drought. It earned him the 2009 World Food Prize.
Ejeta worked in Sudan in the 1970s and 80s before moving to Purdue; the resistance source is attributed to a Sudanese line, and adoption was limited by the Sudanese conflict.
What it led to
- resistant sorghum varieties in the Sahel and East Africa
- drought-adapted sorghum hybrids
- reduced losses across the sorghum belt