Ethiopian-American Gebisa Ejeta is this year's World Food Prize Award winner. The World Food Prize, distributed by the World Food Prize Foundation, is as highly-regarded as a Nobel in agricultural circles. Ejeta, a 49-year old Distinguished Professor of Agronomy at Purdue University, won the award for developing sorghum hybrids resistant to drought, enhancing the food supply of 500 million sub-Saharan Africans in the process. Dr. Ejeta's sorghum hybrids are also resistant to the noxious parasitic weed Striga, which diverts essential nutrients from their host plants and stunts their growth. Striga hinders the growth of millions of tons of corn, sorghum, millet, and rice crops in Africa annually.

The award honors individuals that advance human development by improving the quantity, quality or worldwide availability of food. Dr. Ejeta collected his $250,000 award at an Oct. 15 ceremony in Des Moines, Iowa. Congratulations to him, and to everyone working currently to solve our global food crises.