On February 4, 2026, Clemson University scientists announced a $1.2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a hydroponic banana propagation system aimed at transforming agriculture in Africa-with direct benefits for growers in South Carolina.

The project, led by horticulture professor Jeffrey Adelberg, is designed to create a cost-effective method for growing disease-free banana starter plants without soil. Instead, the system uses nutrient-rich hydroponic solutions, promising a more scalable, pest-resistant and climate-resilient banana supply.

"For millions of households that rely on these banana types as daily staples, reduced yields from pests and disease and climate stresses directly threaten food security,"said Delphine Amah, a scientist at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria, a key partner in the initiative.

The project will launch on the ground in Tanzania and Uganda, where banana yields have been battered by climate pressures and disease outbreaks. The goal: deliver clean planting material at scale to farmers who depend on bananas as a primary calorie source, especially in rural communities.

Bananas are the world's largest non-seed crop, but their vulnerability to disease-like Panama disease and banana bunchy top virus-puts entire regional economies and nutritional systems at risk. This project offers a path toward resilient, localized solutions.

While the hydroponic banana tech is being piloted in Africa, South Carolina growers won't be left out. Once the system is refined for African varieties, researchers plan to adapt it for use with strawberries, sweet potatoes, and other U.S. crops.

The long-term goal is to improve not just African food systems, but also boost resilience and profitability for small and mid-sized farms in South Carolina and beyond. High-value crops in the U.S. often face similar pressures-rising input costs, pest resistance, and unpredictable weather-which hydroponic propagation could help mitigate.

This grant ties global food security and U.S. ag competitiveness together, making it a rare cross-continental investment in climate-smart, sustainable agriculture.

Bananas are more than a breakfast fruit-they are a lifeline for over 70 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. As demand rises and traditional production methods falter, the Clemson-led initiative offers a new blueprint for scalable, soil-free crop propagation.

And with the backing of one of the world's largest philanthropic investors, the project may well redefine how bananas-and other staple crops-are grown in a changing climate.