Gebisa Ejeta, born in 1950, is an Ethiopian American plant breeder, geneticist and professor at Purdue University who won the 2009 World Food Prize for his major contributions to sorghum production.
Facts
Defining ContributionDeveloped the first high-yielding, drought-tolerant sorghum hybrids resistant to Striga, a parasitic weed affecting a large share of Africa's arable land, sharply raising sorghum yields for smallholder farmers; awarded the 2009 World Food Prize. 1 Sources
1. World Food Prize: Gebisa Ejeta (2009)
World Food Prize Foundation2009 laureate profile, Early Life section
Born in 1950, Gebisa Ejeta grew up in a one-room, thatched hut with a mud floor in the rural village of Wollonkomi in west-central Ethiopia.
2009 laureate profile, Achievement section
Gebisa Ejeta of Purdue University and ICRISAT was awarded the 2009 World Food Prize for increasing the supply of one of the world's principal grains by developing the first high-yielding hybrid sorghum plants, resistant both to drought and attack from Striga
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