July 20, 2009
by Carrie Draeger

Dr. Gebisa Ejeta, a professor of agronomy at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., was named the recipient of the World Food Prize for his research on sorghum plants in his native Africa. Considered the Nobel Prize of Agriculture, the prize is given to people who have improved the "quality, quantity or availability or food in the world," according to the World Food Prize Foundation's Web site. Ejeta and his family are members of Our Saviour Lutheran Church, West Lafayette, Ind., where they have worshipped since 1984. Our Saviour is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

Ejeta was born in Ethiopia, where he received his bachelor's degree in plant science at Alemaya College, Alemaya, Ethiopia, in 1973. He earned his master's degree in 1976 and doctorate in 1978 in plant breeding and genetics in from Purdue. He spent his career advancing the production and availability of sorghum. The grain helps feed more than 500 million people in Africa.

The award was announced in Washington, D.C., by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and the World Food Prize Foundation President Kenneth Quinn. Ejeta will be honored and receive a $250,000 prize Oct.15 at the Iowa State Capitol, Des Moines.

ELCA News Service
Information provided by Purdue University and the World Food Prize Foundation.
Carrie L. Draeger is a senior communication major with a concentration in journalism at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Wash. This summer she is an intern with the ELCA News Service.