Autar Mattoo and his colleagues at the American Department of Agriculture's Vegetable Laboratory have been comparing mulching methods for tomato crops.
Professor Mattoo believes that the flow of people between two nations that reach out into the Indian Ocean will increase because they have mutual values.
On the other hand, plants grown using hairy-vetch mulch are a lot healthier (and yields are 20% higher), so Dr Mattoo wondered if he could track down the biochemical origins of this healthiness.