SUDAN. Korak, Nuba Mountains, Sudan. January, 2024.

Busainah Mohammed, 31, a member of the Massakin tribe within the Nuba, cleans sorghum on a field in her village in the Nuba Mountains.

There is a remarkably high level of variation within cultivated sesame and sorghum in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan although the region is relatively small. The Nuba people are geographically isolated and culturally diverse in religion, language, material inventory, agricultural practices and in their rituals involving crop plants, and this contributes to the diversity in their cultivars. Nuba crop husbandry is sophisticated and high levels of genetic diversity are maintained by deliberate selection of crop varieties that are well adapted to each of the micro-environments of the region and best suited for different economic uses.