RPLANT SCIENTIST TRYING TO "ROOT" OUT WORLD HUNGER

 

For Jonathan Lynch, it's all about the roots.

 

For decades, the Penn State professor of plant nutrition has been studying how the roots of plants such as common bean, corn and soybean can be designed, selected and developed to improve yields in the low-fertility soils of poor counties. Lynch believes his research into root architecture, formation and characteristics is critical for the world, especially for parts of Africa, Asia and South America where people continually battle starvation.

 

“The United Nations estimates that 840 million people are undernourished, and the number of malnourished people is actually growing,” he says. “Agricultural production in developing nations is primarily limited by drought and low soil fertility. Fertilizer use in these regions is low and is not likely to increase substantially in the foreseeable future. The development of crops with better yield on poor soil, therefore, has great promise to alleviate human suffering.

 

“If we understood roots better, we could give people seed for better plants, and they could grow more food,” Lynch adds.

 

Lynch expects the world hunger situation to get worse in coming decades as the effects of global climate change become widely felt. “The real challenge is what is coming ahead,” he says. “Droughts are expected to get worse in much of the developing world. It will become increasingly critical for people in those regions to have crops that can grow with little moisture in poor soils. To do that, the plants must have the right root traits.”

 

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Learn more:

 

Jonathan Lynch’s root research

 

Research and graduate education in the College of Agricultural Sciences