By 2050, the world will need to feed two billion additional people. A challenge this serious requires the best and brightest minds in agricultural science to explore how to grow the food needed to meet this anticipated demand--in addition to the current need to improve food security in the developing world.

Enter the Legume Scholars Program.

Managed by Michigan State University, the Legume Scholars Program is a partnership between the CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes and Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Legume Systems Research and Peanut Innovation Lab to support of the graduate study of promising young scientists from developing countries who are committed to pursuing research careers in disciplines involving grain legumes. Potential areas of study include agriculture economics, crop physiology, food science, gender studies, nutrition, plant breeding and genetics, plant protection, soil science, and social science.

Grain legumes are critical crops in developing countries that have long been recognized as nutrient dense, staple foods that help ensure food and nutritional security in the world's most resource-poor regions. In many of these areas, grain legumes also provide needed household income for smallholder farmers--the principle producers of grain legumes in the world, a majority of whom are women.

The Legume Scholars Program has just one cohort of scholars and will be closing in late 2019/early 2020. All five scholars are successfully completing their PhD degrees. 

Nominations for the program are currently closed and there is no active recruitment.

For further inquiries, contact the Legume Scholars Office (cgc.legumescholar@msu.edu) at the Michigan State University.