Across the world, agricultural scientists are starting to work backward.
For years, they’ve seen how improved crop varieties — which take decades to produce in a lab — are rejected by the farmers who need them most. They might be pest-resistant, but take too long to cook. Drought-tolerant, but require expensive fertilizers. And high-yield, but with leaves that are too small to eat.
But now, many are shifting the way they design hybrid crops by involving farmers at the very start of the process instead of years after a solution has already been created by scientists in a lab.
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About the author
Elissa Miolene
Elissa Miolene reports on USAID and the U.S. government at Devex. She previously covered education at The San Jose Mercury News, and has written for outlets like The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Washingtonian magazine, among others. Before shifting to journalism, Elissa led communications for humanitarian agencies in the United States, East Africa, and South Asia.
