Interesting. Nice to see the ...

Published December 2, 2013 13:02 by Pawan Sharma, Central Soil and water Conservation Research and Training Institute, Dehradun (Indian Council of Agriculture Research) - Principal Scientist

Interesting. Nice to see the couple doing a marvelous job. But I think that organic farmer has been a better geneticist as he managed to evolve his varieties based on their tolerance to natural stresses and also managed sustainable yields. Modern geneticists focus only on yields and do their selections only in the most favorable environments. As a result, we have lost a number of good genes, and the geneticists have lost the trust of organic farmers. Even now, there is a great pressure to release high yielding varieties, without any consideration on their performance under stress conditions.If Pam is helping her husband in going towards better genetic approaches, it is really laudable, but she will have to work very hard to clear the minds of organic farmers clouded by the sins committed by earlier breeders.