Following up on Dipak's mention of funding issues, here are some thoughts and a proposal.
Lack of funding for millets research has always been an issue, and that seems to be even more of an issue with US cuts to Federal research funding in general (without getting into the politics of it)./1 In 2023, Prof. James Schnable, Dipak's colleague at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, was quoted as saying: "(Proso millet) is in this weird hole in the federal funding schemes, which is part of why we ended up using private money to start Dryland Genetics. Because it’s a grain, it doesn’t qualify for a lot of the specialty crop grants,"/2 I think that gap is if anything bigger and deeper in the case of other millets (and "alternative crops"). In that same article, Dr. Rob Myers at University of Missouri (who was instrumental in getting us to the Millets Webinars series in 2023) remarked how what might be a relatively minor grant for major crops could be a game changer in the case of millets (my wording)./2 I hear Dipak's mention of it in his recent post as reflecting the recent changes and cuts in ag research funding in the US generally (without getting into the politics of it), and alerting us to a critical need at this point in time that goes beyond the previous dearth of funding for millets. So here's a question: How might we - NAMA and the community of interest in millets - call attention to the need and opportunity for funding ongoing and new research on millets, and the potential costs of not funding such research? Can we and should we in such an effort highlight specific programs such as Dipak's which (if I understand correctly) are at risk? How might such an appeal address a range of public, commercial, and foundation possibilities? Please let me know what you think is possible and realistic (or productively ambitious). Don Don Osborn, PhD (East Lansing, MI, US) North American Millets Alliance Notes: 1. I turned up a bevy of articles from around the US in a Google search under "News" on "current state of agriculture research funding" 2. "Millets — ancient drought-resistant grains — could help the Midwest survive climate change," by Eva Tesfaye, Harvest Public Radio, 22 May 2023 https://www.kcur.org/2023-05-17/millets-drought-climate-united-nations
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