Dr. Darrell Rosenow, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station grain sorghum breeder, was recently named a co-recipient of the 2003 Board for International Food and Agricultural Development Award for Scientific Excellence. The award recognizes researchers for significant achievement originating from the United States Agency for International Development's Collaborative Research Support Program.

Rosenow, a Kansas native, earned bachelor's and master's degrees in agriculture and plant breeding from Kansas State University, and a doctorate in plant breeding from Texas A&M University. He began his research career in grain sorghum breeding and genetics at The Texas A&M University System Agricultural Research and Extension Center at Lubbock in 1964.

Rosenow has played a major role in global sorghum improvement programs for 40 years. His work with the sorghum-millet Collaborative Research Support Program spans more than 20 years. He has served as project leader of the cooperative sorghum conversion program run by the Experiment Station and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service. Initiated in 1963, this program converts tall, late-maturing exotic sorghums to earlier-maturing lines which produce well in temperate climates and can be harvested by combines.
This program has released more than 650 fully-converted lines and provides useful material to sorghum programs worldwide. These converted lines are a major source of new germplasm being used in U.S. sorghum improvement programs.

Rosenow's work in developing new germplasm has targeted resistance to diseases such as downy mildew, head smut, anthracnose, charcoal rot and maize dwarf mozaic. The improved sorghums also are less susceptible to lodging, grain weathering and drought, and to pests such as the sorghum midge. His work includes collaboration with molecular biologists identifying genetic markers and the location drought resistance traits in sorghum DNA, and utilizing them in marker assisted genetic selection.

He is a pioneer in breeding for drought resistance, due to his knowledge of the world's sorghum hereditary materials. The global significance of this work grows daily, as demand and competition for water for agriculture increases in countries where 500 million people consume sorghum, and in the U.S. where sorghum is a major source of livestock feed.

Rosenow's plant breeding efforts have resulted in the development and release, or co-release, of more than 1,200 germplasm lines, parental lines, hybrids and populations. He has authored or co-authored more than 275 publications on sorghum improvement. His international collaborative work has taken him to Sudan, Mali, Niger and the Honduras. His work overseas has contributed to the development of new food products using sorghum flour in nations with growing populations and unpredictable food supplies.

He has also been a mentor to other scientists. He has served on the committee, or as co-chair, for more than 58 graduate students at Texas A&M and Texas Tech University. Many of these students are now collaborative researchers working in Columbia, India, Kenya, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Somalia, Swaziland and the U.S.

Rosenow is a past recipient of the Deputy Chancellor for Agriculture's team research award, the excellence for international involvement, and the soil and crop science department's Superior Service Award – all from Texas A&M. He has also been recognized for outstanding achievement by the National Grain Sorghum Producers Association, and as agricultural research scientist of the year by the High Plains Research Foundation.

He received the BIFAD award Feb. 4, at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Rosenow is the third Texas A&M Agriculture Program scientist to receive this international award for career achievement – previous recipients are Drs. Tim Phillips and Richard Frederiksen.

Writer: Tim W. McAlavy, (806) 746-6101, email: t-mcalavy@tamu.edu