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…

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