Cultivators: Janaki Ammal

E. K. Janaki Ammal (1897-1984) was a botanist and cytogenecist, referred to as India’s first woman botanist. She gained expertise in crossbreeding hybrid species of plants while studying at the University of Michigan, where she became the first Indian woman to earn a Ph.D in botany in the U.S. She is best known for her work to improve India’s native sugarcane, which led to India ending its imports of the crop and becoming independent. She went on to fight for the preservation of India’s indigenous plants and end deforestation as a part of the 1970s Save Silent Valley movement.