Desraj Khai, 57, has worked the Sekhon family’s land for nearly five decades, since the time of the Green Revolution, when Western crop scientists introduced Punjabi farmers to hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers, and chlorine-based weed and insect killers. Khai uses a stout wooden rod to claw gaps in the walls of a narrow channel, directing a stream of water to wheat paddies that grow beneath a grove of young aspen. Throughout the year, there are three growing seasons: two consecutive plantings of rice, in early spring and again in late summer, followed by a winter crop of wheat. (Image © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue)