In 2008, two earnest young men set out to boost soya bean yields in the semi-arid region of Bundi in Rajasthan. Rainfall there is meagre and the soil lacks nutrients. But there are ready buyers for soya bean and the farmers were already growing it in small quantities among their other crops. Bumping up production held out the prospect of soya bean being the driver of better incomes in the villages of Bundi district infamous for bonded labour and poverty.
Neither Padam Jain, 38, nor Himanshu Bais, 32, had extensive knowledge of scientific agricultural practices. Well-informed opinion was. . .
