Workers attaching paper selfing-bags used to prevent cross-pollination of sorghum germplasm research material at ICRISAT, the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics. This UN-affiliated crop research institute seeks to increase the yield of food crops in dry tropical regions by improving plant genetics and farming techniques. Their 3,500 acre (1390 Ha) research complex near Hyderabad, India was established in 1972, and they have satellite research facilities in eight African countries (Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi, and Mozambique).
ICRISAT conducts food productivity research on sorghum, pearl millet, finger millet, chickpea, pigeon pea, and peanut, which are key subsistence crops for non-irrigated farmland in Africa and Asia. They maintain a gene bank with over 120,000 varieties of these crops from 144 countries. Many of the older varieties are no longer cultivated, and their genebank is the only source of that genetic material. This kind of unskilled labor pays $7/day, minus deductions for health care, and the jobs are done mainly by women from local villages.
- Filename
- STNMTZ_20211007_3857.tif
- Copyright
- ©2021 George Steinmetz
- Image Size
- 8192x5464 / 128.1MB
- www.georgesteinmetz.com
- Contained in galleries

