India, Oct. 29 -- On May 29, 1923, the American agronomist and plant explorer Dr Harry V Harlan arrived at the Poona Agricultural College to examine its experimental plots. Raised on a Kansas farm, Harlan directed barley investigations for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and had travelled through North Africa and India seeking crops suited to difficult growing conditions.

In Poona, he inspected a collection of over one hundred varieties of sorghum, known across the Deccan as "jowar", selecting eight varieties to ship to Washington alongside seeds of guar, hyacinth bean, cowpea, and moth bean.

Farmers in the southern Great Plains and the arid Southwest of the US struggled to find field crops and forage plants that coul...