A bug expert from Michigan State University is heading a $1.25 million U.S. government project to find better ways to protect crops from pests in central Asia.
The goal of entomology professor Karim Maredia's work is to improve food security in the region, which suffers from a limited diversity of crops and overuse of pesticides.
The U.S. Agency for International Development is funding the work, which also involves researchers from University of California-Davis and several central Asian nations.
The project focuses on the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Researchers from the two U.S. schools have been visiting the region since 2004 to promote biological means of pest control.