Discovery Could Help Feed Millions
Loretta Mayer is working on research to speed up fertility in rats to decrease the number of rodents munching on crops intended for humans. (Photo by Jerry Foreman, Northern Arizona University)
When scientist Loretta Mayer set out to alleviate diseases associated with menopause, she didn’t realize her work could lead to addressing world hunger and feeding hundreds of millions of people.
The Northern Arizona University researcher and her colleagues at NAU and the University of Arizona identified a nontoxic chemical technology that when applied to rodents, caused infertility in rats, which feast on crops intended for human consumption.
“This environmentally neutral approach, that has never been available before, will reduce the damage rice-field rats cause in countries that depend on rice as a main food supply,” Mayer said.
Rodents consume or damage up to 50 percent of pre-harvest rice crops. Due to the large-scale cultivation of rice worldwide, if rice production were to increase by 10 percent, “this would feed about 380 million people a year,” Mayer said. “We can easily increase rice production by 10 percent by reducing rodent fertility in half.” (more…)
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