URBANA, ILLINOIS, US — The Soybean Innovation Lab (SIL) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will remain open another year thanks to an anonymous $1.02 million donation through the Founders Pledge, a global nonprofit supporting entrepreneurs.
Peter Goldsmith, director of the lab, which is part of the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Feed the Future program that addresses global hunger and poverty, said in February that it would close on April 15 due to the loss of funding from the federal agency.
On April 28, the university announced the donation, and Goldsmith said the grant will continue some essential work while providing time to seek additional and stable funding sources that can help the lab continue its work.
According to the lab’s website, SIL’s goal is to give researchers, non-governmental organizations and the private sector information and technology needed to advance soybean development in Africa. The lab has more than 100 soybean experts from 24 countries.
Other universities that contribute to the U of I lab, which opened in 2013, include Iowa State University, Mississippi State University and the University of Missouri.
“We will use the gift to restart our efforts with our partners and clients bringing soybean to the Lower Shire Valley of southern Malawi, diversifying the Lower Shire economy and leveraging recent World Bank irrigation investments,” said Goldsmith, who is also emeritus professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at Illinois.
Goldsmith emphasized that although the SIL’s work has direct benefits for African farmers and agribusinesses, building the African soybean value chain also represents a major boon for the US and global economies.
“Africa is the last frontier for soybean,” he said. “It’s one of the fastest-growing areas and has huge potential, but someone has to go in and de-risk commercial interests. That’s what SIL does. We go in and de-risk, build the market, and reduce uncertainty so that farmers in trade can follow on. And it’s not just farmers, it’s traders, it’s processors. We’ve been very effective at it. Without us, there’s no plan B.”
