It’s an all-day journey from Nairobi to Kisimu, where my colleague, Benjamin Kilian, and I will look at some finger millet pre-breeding projects. Halfway into the journey we climbed to 2400 metres on the western side of the Riff Valley and entered prime Kenyan tea country.

We stretched our legs and met Jonah, a tea plucker on a massive plantation owned by Unilever. Jonah picks only the light green recent growth leaves. With all the rain the plantation has received, he’ll be back in a couple of months to pick again in the same place as the leaves grow.