Talking about Grass Pea with Dr. Priyanka Gupta (Episode 208 Podcast Transcript — Grounded by the Farm)

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39:03

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

crop, people, grass, agriculture, legume, farmers, grow, root, toxin, working, india, research, plant, developed countries, lentils, problem, talk, drought, pea, big

SPEAKERS

Grounded by the Farm, Dr. Priyanka Gupta

Grounded by the Farm  00:01

Food is more than just what’s on our plate. It’s the places where it’s grown. It’s the people who grow it and so much more. Join me, Janice person, your host on Grounded by the Farm every other week as we talk about the foods we love. Hey everybody, this is Janice and welcome to another episode of Grounded by the Farm. This week, we’re taking a very different turn geographically. And we’re going to Morocco, which is one of those countries I think, kind of gets a Mystique and an aura. Maybe everybody doesn’t think about Plant Breeding, but that’s where we are today. And we’re going to be talking to Priyanka Gupta, I met Priyanka, also in Mexico, but I’m not going to go through that whole thing again. But I had a chance to talk with her while we were there. And we’ve kept in touch by social media all these years. And so now Priyanka, if you don’t mind, would you introduce yourself? I think you grew up in India, right? Yes,

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  00:57

absolutely. At the outset, I would like to express my sincere thanks for having me

Grounded by the Farm  01:04

here. Oh, it’s my pleasure. Yeah.

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  01:06

As you said, I grew up in northern central part of India. If you ask me why, how did they come to agricultural research, then? Definitely, in that area, where I grew up, is called upon Dale countries and where women are designed to get married in 20s. And if they would like to offer a career, then Agriculture Research was not definitely a part of their profession. But teacher was the profession where they can balance their family and their work life.

Grounded by the Farm  01:41

Yeah, you’re a little bit different than the typical girl from your area.

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  01:46

Yeah, exactly. as time moves, so some of my cousins and siblings they chose engineering it field and but not agriculture. So then I was like my siblings always used to encourage me because of my curious learning habits. At the same time during my primary education I used to participate in lots of you notice activities, we’re one of them was to be about the deforestation, how we can save the trees. And then so that’s how I drove towards the environment. Yes,

Grounded by the Farm  02:19

I have that same passion for the planet. And when I found agriculture, it just made sense for me

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  02:26

and then actually turning point begin when I joined a Indian Council of agricultural research as a senior research fellow in my own city chassis, as well as entirely an IRI. So, I was working on this underutilized crop, which we are going to talk today grassy and and I was lucky enough to avoid it as a very prestigious fellowship called bioversity babylove frankin fellowship. So that’s how I came to Canada.

Grounded by the Farm  02:59

Now not very many people listening know what I car that is so maybe we should explain.

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  03:05

Yeah, so icarda is one of the 15 dti our center is a global research center which works on the dryland agriculture system. icarda has some mandate crops, cereals, and food legume safely the cool season food legume crops and little crops includes the bread wheat, durum wheat, and barley. And of course ism for legume crops includes fava bean, chickpeas, sisli, cabbage, qabalistic, yes. And tarvin qabalistic logical lentils and also grass pea

Grounded by the Farm  03:40

Yeah, pulses and and all are a really important part of diets. And I know India has a special love for chickpeas and lentils. Right? Yeah, we actually did an episode on lentils a few months ago. And I have done one on purple hull peas, but those are very different. I think then that grasping Yeah,

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  04:02

yeah. Actually, you grasp these kind of, if you people taste It’s, it’s just like a bit like a champion. Okay. Okay, so it looks like grass. And it tastes like tea. And because it’s a family tea family. So it’s the grass feed, earning general name. So yeah, so we were talking about like about the car does so icarda, you know, when I joined, I suppose to try and Syria in 2012 when I avoided this fellowship, but because of the civilian unrest in Syria, they can’t decentralize their program at North Africa, Sub Saharan Africa, as well as in South Asia.

Grounded by the Farm  04:42

Yeah, I think a lot of people may remember some of that discussion around Syria versus Morocco. Because at the time in northern Syria is where some of the genetics from a carta were located. Right. And I remember a discussion about a lot of people For being very worried about the seed library, so not a lot of people really follow that anxiously. But it was very big in the news that there was this seed concentration that had always been in Syria. And I carta is in all of these dry environment. They’re looking for the crops that do really well, in countries with this desert, like or at least drought area, and Syria is one of them. But they moved a lot of that to Morocco before things got as bad as they’ve continued to get right.

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  05:37

Yeah, there is a documentary on gene bank in Syria, actually also the previous dg they presented in Poland food price program about the icard under war, so it was like many presentation they then the documentary as well, and Duffy deposited in solid word reason. So

Grounded by the Farm  05:56

I’ll have to get the link for that documentary so people can follow it and watch it. I will see a video great, great, all this consultative group in agricultural engineering globally. And you’re in the part that focuses on the drier parts of the world. And that’s where grats p works. Well. Is that right?

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  06:15

Yeah, actually, my fellowship was from bioversity. International. Okay, since the fabuleux. Franklin fellowship, so I submitted the proposal on underutilized crop, and that was glaspy. That’s how Anika has amended crop. And because of this movement, I happen to be here in Rabat, Morocco. And at that time, there were so many challenges under these challenges, many big guns of the agricultural leaders used to come here and they talk about the you know, the agriculture development, technology, science, those kinds of you know, their stories and their knowledge, insights and charisma. Yeah,

Grounded by the Farm  06:52

yeah. It’s like a global center really for breeding and science and technology. And so you actually mentioned that Lee has, who was on our last episode has been there a few times and part of the work he’s doing as well, right. Yeah. It seems like a really exciting arena for so many scientific minds.

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  07:11

Yeah, actually dealing the diamond traveling with them and their personality, it was very learning process. And at the same time, like, you know, after finishing my this scholarship, I met another, like, you know what, I was looking for the PhD. And then I met here who is working as a on durum wheat, Dr. Filippo Bassi, I think you know him.

Grounded by the Farm  07:32

Oh, yes, lipo is the one that Lee was giving a hard time to, because we made him do an interview for me while we were in Mexico, hmm.

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  07:43

So actually, and he is one of my co advisor during PSD. And so that’s how I submitted the proposal for one central beach volleyball on international scholarship. And it was another blank book for me when I came to from rhasspy to Durham beat, so it was like, kind of, you know, you are getting the boost. And then that’s how I went to University of Bologna, Italy. And they are again working with Professor tuberosa. Dr. McAfee. And so those kind of, you know, they are a genotyping work here phenotyping from icarda. So that’s all overall, these things energize me a lot and Curry’s me, too, you know, and then afterwards I met to, you know, the Dr. Sanjay Rajaratnam one of the World Food Prize Laureate body from 2014 oxygen. And I also party participated in the World Food Prize program there again, I met Dr. Kirsch, and many big guns of agriculture leaders. So that’s how the journey is like, to be very frank, I was not very, like, clear about my career option in the beginning, but I would say agriculture audience, like in my life, to be part of, you know, to serve for this research and then reading and also working on those crops.

Grounded by the Farm  09:12

Yeah, so you were working on grass Pea, and then you started working on wheat for a while and now you’re back on grass, pea plant breeding kind of techniques and stuff, they really are able to be used in one crop versus another and you you learn new things by working with a different crop that maybe you can bring back or how does all of that work?

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  09:33

Yeah, actually, that is very interesting question. If we talk about the breeding, actually, it is not a very different, it is same except how the crops is like I am working on the legume crops definitely there are some different growing habits crop is different. For example, whatever I have learned from the beat, it is also self pollinating. Crop plus is itself self pollinating crop. So breeding methods, techniques, everything is similar. But the crop behavior is different.

Grounded by the Farm  10:01

Yes, yes. And certainly the products made out of it later are different. Exactly.

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  10:07

Definitely whatever I have learned even some of the experiment which I have done during my PhD, I’m repeating here in my grasses. For example, what the roots behavior. I’m looking for the rudaki chapter because the grass feed is one of the drought tolerant crops. Okay, so I’m looking for how the roots are different from the seals and why they are drought tolerant. What is the speciality?

Grounded by the Farm  10:29

Yeah, so when you say root architecture, I think a lot of us understand how trees put their roots out, in a branching kind of formation, where they go out sort of near the top of the soil, they start going out before they go down so much. And most of us have grown something in our yard, you know, some flowers or something that puts that long taproot. So those are two of the primary differences. Like, is it one long, big root that then branches out from there? Or is it a series that kind of branch out from the main plant, and that’s part of root architecture? But really, what you’re thinking about is how much root mass can you get there? And how deep can it go? So it can tap into water? That’s not on the surface, is that right?

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  11:15

Yeah, exactly. So, when we talk about the root system architecture, so there are you know, there is a deep rooting system and there is a crown like wide structure system, yep. And in case of crust, it is completely different, because you have a literal and secondary roots, okay. And then in case of wheat, it is entirely different structure. Yeah. So, definitely It is like, you know, there are we are looking for some kind of, you know, the deep rooting system is responsible to extracting the water and nutrients from the soil. Yep. Or it is something like, which is the binding the root, so it is making the horizontal kind of structure, which is helping to extracting the water. Exactly, exactly. Okay.

Grounded by the Farm  12:02

I wanted to make sure everybody understood why root structure really matters, because what it’s doing is really providing all of the water and nutrients for the crop. So if you don’t have good root systems, and part of that comes from breeding efforts, right, exactly. Perfect. Perfect. Okay. How do you know what farmers need as a plant breeder? Right, like part of it is, is you’re trying to anticipate what farmers need? You’re not just seeing the problems they have today, but you have to look at the problems 10 years away, or 20 years away, right. So how do you how do you start forecasting that

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  12:41

actually, if you talk about, like, what farmers need, and what we need, actually, it is not a one way process, it is a two way process, okay. So like, if I talk about, again, the grass the crop, then it is from ncn time, the farmers that are growing this crop interaction with the farmers in the field, when you go to the field and through the market research, what consumers needs, that actually gives you the plan of the euro breeding product profile, what you are going to talk about, like what you’re going to research about, for example, many years back, there was no need of like people are like if I talk about people or talk about the food security, like by 2050 the law how many times we heard that 9.9 billion people and we need to feed them. And so we talk about the cereals, but at this moment, I’m I can see the nutritional security is equally important.

Grounded by the Farm  13:41

Yes. And grass P is a good protein source,

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  13:46

exactly more than 31% of protein better than other legume seeds. And that’s how it moves. Actually what farmers were doing a while the interaction before and what we are doing now. What is the requirement in our market here? Actually, people are looking for more plant based protein. Yeah, so there are so many plant based protein industry. Yeah,

Grounded by the Farm  14:10

yeah. And it’s got 30% more protein than other legumes. Yeah, that’s amazing. Yeah.

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  14:16

Other legumes in case of chick pea, and in case of lentils, it is around 20 to 25%. And in case of grass feed is 30% only soybean I think it is a little bit up. It’s a while seated, like you. So yeah, it varies. So grassy is a good source of the protein. And that’s how it is getting the attention of many breeders and many research scientists to bring it in front.

Grounded by the Farm  14:45

Can you help me understand where grass pea is? grown and eaten and all those kinds of pieces?

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  14:51

Yeah, exactly. Actually, if we, as I said, like crispy. If we talk about the history, then from the From the unseen time from the farmers started the journey from the Fertile Crescent it became glaspy cultivation and but there is a if you go through the literature there are so many striking phases you will come across and so many names of the grass species of grass species a boon or bane as grass is the poisonous crop or progress fiza like destroyer or survivor. So, there are so many blogs you will come through, so, you will feel like I have no idea like it is a poisonous crop, so, we should not grow what is the problem with that. So, actually, so, I would begin the story in this way, like grassy is actually a nonsense crop, it’s a reverse crop. So, here I would like to actually begin with the story, if I asked you to go to the desert, and you are not having like a whole day of water, and some nobles will come to you and ask you the water, what would be your reaction you will say it is my second birth, you know. So, if the glaspie has those kind of history at the time of mine, but then there were so much drought so much heat, there was very limited water, and people were very poor. And this crop hardy crop grown in that environment.

Grounded by the Farm  16:18

That’s fantastic. And and it’s such a nutritional source too. So it’s not just that you’re you’re getting food, but you’re getting really nutritious food.

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  16:29

Yeah, exactly. But the problem here again comes like it has one plant toxins, right for the for the AP is odacc content. So that is a neurotoxin. If people take this grass pee for a longer period overconsumption, then it can cause a paralysis and the lower part

Grounded by the Farm  16:50

of the body. And when you say overconsumption, you mean an intense amount of it as a portion of their diet, like they’re not getting other things or it’s such a high concentration.

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  17:03

Exactly. Yeah, here is actually very, if I would ask you what is the poison you know, then poison is a is a different, you know, poison is a dose has a different meaning. Everything can be a poison, if it is taking in the overconsumption and an intense amount, as you said, like for diabetic people, if I would give the sugar then definitely it is a poison for them. And so solid people like wheat, barley and rye

Grounded by the Farm  17:34

is a poison. And yeah, and you can hear people actually drinking themselves to death in terms of water even because your your body can’t process enough at a certain point. So, it’s the dose that makes the poison is the way we have that saying right, exactly,

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  17:51

and you know, when people take this for longer time, so, overconsumption actually, if you see the literature and when we people studied this, say the one very famous quotation comes with the grasp that the overconsumption for the longer time causes the paralysis in the lower part of the body, but I would like to ask them, which food category will pass these tests, you know, if you anything that you eat, consume for a longer period and for for longer time and intense quantity, then definitely it will be pleasant for everyone, you should decide the content. So that is the actually masses. And it happened during the mine time now when especially in African countries, it will be also South Asia in Bangladesh, where people having very poor people, they were not having the food. So they were so much dependent and everyday as a staple crop.

Grounded by the Farm  18:48

They used to consume grass. Right, right. So when there’s a famine and you have very other limited resources, it’s it’s what you have. So you eat it and then you over consume and it causes the problem. So as a breeder, I carta is working on that. And that’s part of your work is to reduce the amount of the toxin produced in the plant. Is that right?

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  19:14

Yeah, exactly. Actually icarda has more than 50 rhasspy lithiasis species, actually glaspy has a botanical name lithiasis which has 50 species and more than, like crop wild relatives, they are adding them those numbers and so many acquisitions of the cultivated species called Hira survivors. So the purpose of my work was to and from the card as a mandate crop they would like to make our free glaspy variety okay, but so they would like to remove the plant toxins, but there are so many research also in India. It’s the National Institute of nutrition In Hyderabad, they they have observed that this trustee has one very important amino acid homogeny and this homo arginine is the catalyst is the substrate for nitric oxide and nitric oxide helps for the cardiovascular diseases or also for the Alzheimer diseases. So they say like if you consume grass pee in a very small amount, it is good for your well being, it can help you it can keep you away from the cardiovascular diseases. So actually, the little very little amount of the beta odor is also good, but it should not be but it’s still like if there is a stigma in the people mind if there is a beat I would have they would definitely not consume it. So so many, you know, the developed countries are institutions like john Innes centre, and also the Queensland University from Australia, they are taking off the gene.

Grounded by the Farm  20:52

Yeah, yeah, it makes so much sense to me as you know, I truly love the cotton crop. That’s what I am highly involved in. And a gentleman by the name of Kirti restore at Texas a&m has worked on eliminating gasa Paul, which is a toxin, and cottonseed and things and it takes takes a lot of work, but he finally got to where he’s been able to do it. And the idea is is cottonseed has always been eaten by animals, especially cattle and things but in some parts of the world where you have deep hunger and people happen to grow cotton Wouldn’t it be great if they could also eat the seed and get the protein and the oils and stuff from it? So I think it’s very similar type of project

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  21:39

is it Yeah, actually, in case of grass Pea, there is a different story as well, because I’m not very familiar with the cotton seed which you mentioned but definitely, if there is a toxin there is a problem because people and these cases actually was like three decades before and seen cases even not in that because we already have the very low toxins Class B varieties but people use as a foreigner here rather than it because some of the states and some of the countries they banned for the it’s a it’s a cultivation on for consumers okay it is good for only for father’s father but he was it too, but it is fine I guess and also humo Argentina and nitrous oxide itself is a very important you know substract to take an extract to take it from this legume. So, it is very much important to not to completely remove this beta toxin rather than we should give the therapeutic use of the brassy saying that okay, it is a poisonous crop not just give the what is the meaning of that so as I said you poison his board what when you take the overconsumption and for the intense amount that is poison so here it doesn’t fit very well.

Grounded by the Farm  22:56

Yeah, yeah. Can you tell me what the crop looks like? I know you sent some photos and we’re gonna have those on the blog and the on the on the website in the show notes. But can you tell me what it looks like? You said it’s a little bit like grass so it grows low to the ground that doesn’t come up as a big bush the way some peas and lentils do

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  23:16

actually do does a great diversity in that if you see different species, okay. For example, some grass pea species looks like exactly like p Okay. One of my friend also collaborator from john Innes centre I just put as a dp my dusty crop he was thinking it is a P. But it was not a piece of some of this this is looks like exactly like it. But yeah, it looks like a lot of grass on the ground. And some are also very bushy. And you can see a bit biomass. So it is good for fodder. That’s

Grounded by the Farm  23:48

why I you know, as I said that, I thought, well, grasses are very different to right, like some grasses stay very low and some if you don’t cut them back, it’s it’s a problem. So then it produces Is it a pea pod? Like we’re familiar with like edamame, a is a pod of peas or something? Are they small, like lentils or bigger around?

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  24:09

No, no, it’s like a pea pods. It says like a sale the same similar kind of structure. And those kind of pieces or seeds, like three or four depending on the different kind of cultivars we are producing here. So it varies in the seat quantity.

Grounded by the Farm  24:27

Yeah, yes. So if you think about it, in Africa, is this something that’s grown more in the northern areas of Africa not SubSaharan?

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  24:38

No, no, no, if you talk about like Morocco, okay. As it would not be very different from America men, not many people know about the crop. Only few people know like, if I actually I was taking some survey I was preparing some blogs or we are also because to spread the awareness of this crop. We are in continuation To know in the preparing the bap site like we are working on it. So, when I wanted to talk to the farmers so they were like and he they were not very aware because you know the rhasspy has their local needs each country even within country in each state there is a some locally they call like in India where I grew up I used to know this crop as the Caesarea and nobody knew about that and then suddenly you know, when you come into the science then you know okay look higher sativas of grass do something like that okay, what people used to do in India I remember like from the local market, they used to mix the chickpea flour with the draft flow Okay, so it because it tastes similar it looks similar so they used to mix it and they used to sell because it was cheaper for them to parties and different kinds of curries and different types of soups. And we call it a Cora like spicy like phase so it’s cheaper than lentils grass pea is it’s it’s easier to grow or all the things it doesn’t take it’s very low input. It doesn’t take you water much water doesn’t take any fertilizer chemicals and special quality like it is a has a tolerance for biotic abiotic stresses like you know the range of the grass feed it from drought to waterlogging it can tolerate drought.

Grounded by the Farm  26:21

Oh wow. So, it can go from drought to being in like flooded last Exactly. That is like very marvelous, you know, yeah, and especially with the shifting weather patterns we have coming now, right? It seems harder and harder to predict what a season will look like Exactly.

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  26:39

And you know, in case like if you go to the Bangladesh and also the West Bengal of India, there they use as a really cropping they just throw the seats of crispy when the standing proper rice there, so it grow automatically so they can have you know, this is insurance crop for them, you can have a benefit of two crops at the same season. Okay, that sounds great. So that kind of you know, so farmers just get the benefit by this crop. So that was the parent you don’t have to give any water the nutrient like the fertilizers, chemicals, and it is like very low input and again, another thing because it is a legume, high protein, and so also enrich the soil.

Grounded by the Farm  27:22

Yes, yes especially legumes do great if you’re rotating it with corn or wheat or something, they’re very complimentary in terms of what they add back to the soil and take away and things right

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  27:34

and that’s what actually the developed countries are trying to do because they have you know, those mono cropping system. So this can be a diversifying crops for them and it can enrich the soil. And again the Another benefit is the plant based protein industry they

Grounded by the Farm  27:51

I noticed in in some parts of the world it’s called a vetch. And in the US we we plant a lot of cover crops that are there you know from the fall to the winter if you’re not planting something else, and it puts a cover on the field and it helps add back nutrition. So are you suggesting that maybe even some grass pea could be grown in that and so it would actually be a crop that you could harvest Can you grow it over winter or how is it grown? I’m a year

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  28:22

yeah, just draw actually does it is a post as you Oh, cool season food legume crops. So it grows in winter. And it is a very, very good cover crop.

Grounded by the Farm  28:31

Oh, great.

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  28:31

So it can be like as you said, the best cover crop it can

Grounded by the Farm  28:36

perfectly Bob. Wow. So do we have anybody in the US it looks like Washington State maybe has had some work and graphs be on? No,

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  28:45

not really. Actually I don’t have any. Like they are working on lentils and so many other legumes but they don’t have any projects on Crosby okay. But in UK and Australia, yeah, they are intensely working on it. Also the University of Western Australia Also joining us center and Queensland University and also Canada. They are they are working on it because of this. So many therapeutic use and also not only the like the breeders not actually also the medical research they are working on it. So in India what center I was talking about is the medical center icmr Indian Council of medical research, they are working as the how we can use extract this nitric oxide use as a substrate to treat the LG Amr disease and cardiovascular diseases. So it

Grounded by the Farm  29:36

may be like a perfect plant. It offers health benefits that can be used medicinally

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  29:43

Exactly. And I always say like it is an incredible plant. When I talk about it. I feel so energized because my first slump I started my journey agriculture journey with this crop. And then now I’m working on it. And moreover like it has so much to deliver. Like if you talk to The wheat so many research has done and so many things already we have to actually because definitely it is a staple crop. But in case of grasping, not a lot of research has done, we have a lot to offer a lot to give, and so many qualities which actually very few people are exploring so there is a big scoop of science

Grounded by the Farm  30:19

Wow, I can tell you’re excited and I wish we shared video of this because your facial expressions are so happy it seems a job that’s very rewarding when you go back to India now where most of your friends maybe from primary school or something didn’t take these pads to take careers necessarily as far although I know with Indian women it certainly become more common each generation each year what do your friends say when you go back to India to visit family your friends, family and friends just kind of amazed by it.

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  30:56

Yeah, that is very interesting question actually, I I absolutely changed you know, when I see my past and now it like when I interact with that. So, they well actually there are two things in the beginning when I when I was doing PhD and when I just did them they were like oh farmers you know they don’t have very high remote for farming and agriculture you know, research and they used to think like okay, this is a dirty job, you know, and because not many like so, many future perspectives, you see the no stable job, you know, there is a so much struggle with that yeah. So, but with the with the global you know, because of the environmental activists nowadays, if I talk they are very like when they see my post and when they because of the environmental activists, they spread the awareness, they say okay, organic farming and agricultural research, you know, so, they are now getting encouraged and energized and we are I am playing the rule. And I feel so proud I feel so rewarded in that way. Because last time I remember in 2019 I visited India and I visited nearby my play places and also the their children and when I asked them what career you were what is your life good, they will they will say I would like to become engineer I would like to move to cities, you know the Not a single child would like to approach career as a farm or agricultural research also

Grounded by the Farm  32:28

keep working on them. Actually,

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  32:33

you know, another problem what we do, there is a gloomy picture of the farmers he is struggling with the climatic variables not having enough money, especially in developing countries, I’m not talking about the developed countries. So they have those gloomy pictures. So, they think like it is not a very good job very,

32:48

you know,

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  32:48

my professor used to say agriculture is 1% inspiration and 90% 99% is the perspiration

Grounded by the Farm  32:55

Yes. So,

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  32:56

that exactly fit. So, definitely people would like to go for the smart life nowadays, but I would like to whenever I meet them and I I tell them like see there is so many modern courses like if you go for the agriculture is not only limited to farmers definitely there is a one part which will deliver to us, but there are so many branches from agribusiness from the like if you go for this other software, which we are using nowadays. So there is a agri engineer agree. Like you can be having so many disciplines actually in agriculture.

Grounded by the Farm  33:32

Yeah. It’s, it’s really surprising. I mean, I didn’t grow up in agriculture. And I had no idea there was a whole field of agricultural communications like that people would study and things like that, because to me, I think of communications as a skill that you can move from one topic to another, much like you can say on Plant Breeding, you can move those tools from one to another, you know, I know how to write press releases, I know how to do different things on social media, I know how to set strategy so I can I can work in different fields and I love that we’ve figured out that it’s very similar in plant breeding, you know, once you start setting some of these science areas, you can move from one area to another, and you get that excitement of discovery or creating the thing that solves problems for other people.

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  34:24

Exactly, you know, you will wander i would i would like to be off like when I started my journey, I wanted to become a journalist. I would like I would like to go into this communication and I drove to agriculture and when I like when I was working and I realized there is a lack of communication in agriculture. Besides this doesn’t know like, like they are very, they are very limited to the research articles. They are very limited to their like chapters or Research, you know, whatever, even some scientists, I know they are not even interested for the research article. They just want to convey their message to farmers.

Grounded by the Farm  35:07

Yes, yes, I think it’s, it’s definitely an area of improvement over the last decade, maybe we’re more people in science and more people in agriculture are aware that a lack of communication has gotten it to a place where it’s not well understood by some. And so by opening up more communications, still need to focus on data, but how to tell the stories that the data help you.

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  35:36

Build is so important, actually, where that’s where you inspired me a lot. I would definitely say because you are a like a storyteller. And I, I believe, like, people would like to listen to a story not a science like definitely sighs but with a story, if they don’t feel energized, when they don’t feel motivate how they can bring to the like, impact to the society, you and also they needed some story to listen, we have to give the very good picture of agriculture, communication, agriculture, science, agriculture, breeding, or whatever the agriculture discipline we are involved in.

Grounded by the Farm  36:11

Exactly. I think we’re about at the time to wrap up. So if people want to continue following your story, I know you’re on Twitter, do you connect with people? mainly through Twitter? Do you have other channels that you also welcome our listeners to follow you on? Yeah, that

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  36:28

would be fine for me on Twitter, or Facebook or LinkedIn, those are the like platform. So that would be absolutely fine. And wherever you feel like,

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  36:38

it’s

Dr. Priyanka Gupta  36:40

like, I saw your website, and then I can also be sharing those, that is a great place to do that.

Grounded by the Farm  36:47

Yes, yeah. So we’ll put those all in the show notes, so people can click on them and find them. I saw a really good video that explains I carta, and some things like that. So I’ll make sure we put all of those together, because I think it would be great for people to continue building their understanding of this. Yeah, exactly. Well, Priyanka, thank you so much for joining us, I think I learned way more about grass pea than I thought was possible. And you made me very intrigued about how it might fit with American farmers or farmers in Canada and some other places, as well as people that are in these developing countries where they’re really looking to feed themselves. And they have such dramatic climate sometimes that they need something that they know they can count on for themselves, their family and their immediate community to feed themselves. So thank you so much. I’m going to encourage everybody to not only listen to this episode, but since you’ve gotten this far in it, I know you’ve listened. Please make sure you share this with others so that they’ll understand this part of agriculture, especially if it’s some girls in places where maybe they haven’t been encouraged to find different paths than traditional tradition might have. I think Priyanka gets a great look at how that works. Always you can find a sound Grounded by the Farm, but we really hope you’ll share this with some people in your lives but also love science. Alright, thank you very much. Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and even not clubhouse so feel free to look us up. Also on our website Grounded by the Farm calm wherever you want to get in touch we’re trying to be there. Shoot us a message about questions you have about farming and food. I hope you enjoy these episodes enough that you’ll share them with friends, whether that’s via social media or in a conversation. Love to think some of that as while you’re having dinner with friends and family. This is a production of grabbing communications. Editing is by two guys talking. Thank you