And Lakshman Guruswamy, of the University of Colorado, told the meeting of another advantage if poor-world farmers can be brought in.

"We want to get the biggest, best genetic representations of the species," said David Milarch, a founder of the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive.

Here in the town of Mithankot, women share a mystical moment at the shrine of Khwaja Ghulam Farid, a revered 19th-century poet they consider a saint.