kevin.miller@roanoke.com 381-1676

Virginia Tech has been selected to receive $34 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development to lead two programs to help farmers in developing countries increase crop production while minimizing environmental damage.

Combined, the two $17 million contracts represent the largest single-day award to a university from the agency's Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade Program. The grants are also among the largest ever received by Tech, which is in the midst of an ambitious campaign to increase its international stature as a research university.

The two five-year contracts are among nine Collaborative Research Support Programs administered by the agency to land-grant universities for research and outreach in dozens of countries worldwide.

In the Integrated Pest Management Program, researchers work with farmers to control pests - and thereby increase crop yield and profits - through natural means, such as crop management and introduction of natural predators. The program, which Tech has led for 11 years, also aims to reduce the use of pesticides, which can contaminate water and food supplies.

The Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management Program aims to teach farmers proper land use and crop and livestock management skills to simultaneously increase productivity and protect natural resources. Tech was previously a partner institution in this program.

Tech will not receive all $34 million. Instead, Tech will probably spread part of the money among more than a dozen universities and two research institutes it has selected as partners.

But as the lead institution and "management entity" for both projects, Tech will manage the money and direct the research efforts. Tech researchers will also be involved in a "very substantial" portion of the research programs, said S.K. De Datta, Tech's associate provost for international affairs and director of the university's Office of International Research, Education and Development.

"We want to put Virginia Tech on the world map ... and this gives us another opportunity to connect globally and become a world-class institution," De Datta said Wednesday.

Tech President Charles Steger said in a statement released today that the partnerships will "give people greater economic self-sufficiency and a more secure future."

"Virginia Tech's world-class researchers are identifying and addressing problems that challenge the day-to-day lives of people in every corner of the world," Steger said.

De Datta said he believes Tech's previous experience, diverse list of partner institutions and thorough proposal to the agency probably gave the university the edge in the competitive bidding process.