Later on, he joined one of the international research centers that is devoted to finding, preserving, and making use of plant germplasm.

It’s called the International Crops Research Center for the Semi-arid Tropics. ICRISAT, as it is known for short, is the world center for the gathering and long-term storage of the germplasm of pigeonpea, as well as that of several other crops that grow in dryland areas. Pigeonpea’s scientific name is Cajanus cajan, and it is sometimes known as red gram. The food is little-known in the temperate world, but it is an important food in the tropics. The same can be said for other foods ICRISAT studies. These include millets, sorghum, groundnut (also known as the peanut), and chickpea. ICRISAT’s headquarters is near Hyderabad, in southern India.

A basic rule of collecting.
One of the basic rules of germplasm collection is that there is always more material out there to be collected than there are people to collect it or money to finance their collecting activities. So collection must employ some priorities. For an international research center such as ICRISAT, it’s important to fill the gaps in the existing germplasm collection. If researchers feel that they have an incomplete collection of, say, a millet that they know grows in Ethiopia, they will call on their colleagues in Ethiopia’s national research centers and seek to organize an expedition there. (Collections are ordinarily housed in protected gene banks or in natural setttings.)

Another priority is to collect as much germplasm as possible from the plant’s assumed place of origin, knowing that there is where the most diversity lies, as well as the greatest likelihood of plants that are resistant to pests and diseases.

A third priority, and one that becomes more important with each passing year, is to go after plants in places that are threatened by human activity. P. Remanandan quite clearly recalls one such place. It is called the Silent Valley.

The Silent Valley.
The Silent Valley lies in the Kundali Hills of India's Western Ghats, in the small but rapidly growing southern state of Kerala. In a region where development has replaced natural vegetation at a rapid rate, the valley stood as a remarkable example of untouched wilderness. The valley was named as a national park in 1980, but there was a hitch.

“In the Silent Valley there is one river, the Kuntipuzha,” explained Remanandan. “Hydroelectric projects are the major source of energy in that area.” The official park designation protected the forest, but it also reserved a site for a long-planned hydroelectric project. When the project was completed, some 830 hectares of the valley would be under water. “This last trace of vegetation would be submerged forever,” said the scientist.

“The project can generate a lot of power. It can bring electricity to the growing population, with jobs. It can produce enormous economic advances, but at the cost of submerging the vegetation.”

Although environmentalists began a campaign to stop the hydro project (a task that environmentalists in India have performed many times), the ruination of Silent Valley seemed quite likely. So, said Remanandan, “I decided to go and collect before this place gets submerged.

“I was shocked when I first saw the Silent Valley. That place is absolutely virgin. Even human populations are not there. It is an evergreen tropical forest, the kind of which you’ll find only in places like the Amazon.” He discovered a cornucopia of plant life, including varieties of pigeonpea that he had not seen before. When he returned to his home base and finished adding his collection to ICRISAT’s living catalogue of germplasm, he put on his environment-lover hat and, acting as a private citizen, joined the public uproar over the planned development. Because of all the outcry, including Remanandan’s, the hydro project was shelved and the entire valley redesignated as a national park in 1984.

Indians are beneficiaries of the rescued park, as is a treasury of flora and fauna that scientists estimate to include thousands of plant species (7 of them new; rare species of cardamom, pepper, yams, beans, a pest-resistant strain of rice, and 110 plant species of importance in medicine); mammals such as tiger, leopard, and Asian elephant and rare bats; 120 species of birds, and dozens of species of amphibians and butterflies).

Venezuela, too.
The people of Venezuela, it turns out, are beneficiaries, too. “I collected some pigeonpea,” said Remanandan, “and those pigeonpeas were strikingly different.” He remembered that difference later when he wentto Venezuela on a separate matter, to assist that South American country’s national agricultural program in identifying pigeonpeas that might be adapted for local use.

Pigeonpea (University of New England, Australia)

Venezuelans had been importing soybean to use as cattle and poultry feed, at a substantial cost to their economy. Pigeonpea, which can grow in Venezuela's semi-arid region, would be an effective and economical substitute for soybean.

Venezuelan scientists invited Remanandan to help them pick out the most promising varieties of the legume, the varieties that would be best adapted to the South American environment. The Indian scientist searched through ICRISAT’s collection and came up with about one thousand varieties. One of them was his discovery from the Silent Valley. After much testing, the winner was chosen. It was the pigeonpea from the Silent Valley, the one that would have become extinct if Remanandan hadn’t arrived in time, with his hiking boots and collecting kit and a fierce desire to see the Silent Valley before it was too late.

Click the following links to lean about collecting of tomatoes, potatoes, and a maize that was once thought to be extinct. Or return to the previous page about explorers.

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