drought resistant crops Archives - Texas A&M AgriLife Foundation Seed

Posted on September 16, 2022September 19, 2022 by Lileen Coulloudon — Leave a comment

Texas A&M AgriLife to lead historic investment in Texas’ efforts to become ‘climate-smart’

Texas A&M AgriLife Research receives largest competitive grant in its history

Texas A&M AgriLife Research is anticipating the largest competitive grant in the organization’s history, up to $65 million, to execute a five-year multi-commodity project to work with Texas’ large agricultural sector on expanding climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices.

The grants are not just historic for The Texas A&M University System, but for the nation, as part of a federal investment in 70 partnerships recently announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Tepary beans offer producers a low-input, climate-resilient legume alternative

Tepary beans are among the most drought-tolerant legume crops in the world, but at one time, they were almost an endangered species in the U.S.

Waltram Ravelombola, Ph.D., a Texas A&M AgriLife Research organic and specialty crop breeder at Vernon and in the Texas A&M Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, is one of a few scientists funded by a U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service grant to bring tepary beans into modern cropping systems and diets.