Researchers with the University of Illinois’ crop research project - Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency, or RIPE for short – recently invited the media and the public to a field day. They showed off some of their research on increasing photosynthesis in plants, which they believe will in turn increase plant bio-mass, and crop yields. Don Ort is the associate director of the RIPE project and a crop science professor at the U of I. He gave Illinois Public Radio’s Brian Moline an overview of the project, starting with the challenges that climate change presents to agriculture.
University of Illinois crop science professor Don Ort is with the RIPE project, which seeks to increase crop yields by increasing photosynthesis in plants.