A drought-tolerant crop used in western Kansas could help fight food insecurity in other...

Kansas State University will be sharing sorghum-growing strategies with farmers in Madagascar with help from a federal grant.

Harvest season for sorghum has wrapped up in Kansas, but 10,000 miles away in Madagascar the planting season has only just begun.

Those farmers in the African country could soon be using western Kansas strategies for growing the grain as they grapple with a changing climate.

A $2.5 million grant will fund the international partnership at a time when farmers in both Kansas and Madagascar are working to cope with water scarcity. Portions of Kansas are facing record drought and groundwater depletion while climate change is shortening the critical rainy seasons in Madagascar.

The new grant from the United States Agency for International Development will help Kansas State University share research on different varieties of sorghum that can better tolerate a changing climate.

Sorghum is a grain that is native to Africa, but farmers in places like Kansas have adopted it because of its resistance to drought.

Boyd Funk has farmed mostly sorghum north of Garden City for 45 years.

“Sorghum came from Africa, and has been so helpful as this area becomes more dryland,” Funk said.