Today, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced the extension of a research partnership with the University of Illinois.

USAID has awarded $6 million to the University of Illinois to extend the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Soybean Value Chain Research for three years.

This extension builds on the successful history of partnership between USAID and the University of Illinois in developing solutions to enhance food security. As part of the Feed the Future initiative, the Soybean Innovation Lab works to reduce global poverty and hunger by accelerating growth in the agriculture sector through improvements in agricultural productivity and processing among smallholder farmers.

The Soybean Innovation Lab is helping communities in Africa develop the knowledge, innovation, and technologies to increase soybean production, processing, and consumption, thereby growing future markets for American farmers and processors too.

Through Feed the Future, America's initiative to combat global hunger, USAID is collaborating with more than 70 U.S. universities and colleges to conduct research and develop technologies that benefit agriculture, resilience and nutrition abroad and here in the United States.