In the early 1980s, the Indian state of Karnataka was suffering. Its principle commercial crop, pigeonpea, was being devastated by wilt. Researchers discovered some pigeonpea seeds in the genebank of the International Crops Research Center for Semi-Arid Tropics which were resistant to wilt. The seeds were directly released from the genebank to pigeonpea specialists in Karnataka within a few years, the pigeonpea industry was restored and is thriving today.

I wanted to see the long-lasting impact of this direct release so ICRISAT’s Head of Genebank, Dr Hari Upadhyaya, took my Crop Trust colleague, Benjamin Kilian, and me on a two-day field trip to the pigeonpea capital of Gulbarga.

Hari arranged for us to meet some farmers and I was expecting we’d kick some dirt and have a quick chat. But things like that don’t happen when Dr Hari is coming to town.

We were greeted at a guesthouse by the Dean of the University of Agricultural Science, Raichur, Dr JR Patil, and the chief pigeonpea breeder, Dr S Muniswamy. It didn’t matter that it was a Sunday. We joined a convoy of four vehicles and drove through some dirt roads till we reached a very healthy pigeonpea field. Hari, Benjamin and I were asked to sit down as we were presented with scarves and flowers while a horde of photographers snapped away. Our hosts gave speeches and then Hari, Benjamin and I gave our own speeches to give thanks and wish the best harvest for our host farmer.

In the end I finally did get the chance to kick some dirt with the farmers but when I did I certainly felt honoured to be amongst those who are so passionate about ensuring our food security.

All images used on this page were photographed by Michael Major for the Crop Trust and used here under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.