Forget the stereotype movie image of white-coated technicians in sterile laboratories producing genetically-engineered superbreed species — he’s more like Indiana Jones, finding ancient plant species and saving them for the future.

The 38-year-old Yambuk man prefers wandering through farmland in Third World communities with tweezers and a pair of scissors.

Next month he will take time out from his professional job in Australia and travel to Ethiopia for two weeks to work with poor farming villagers and share from his rich bank of plant breeding skills.

Mr Leddin is regarded as a rare plant specialist and has already sown his seeds of knowledge in Samoa, Vietnam, Israel, India and East Timor.

“I’m inspired by the prediction that by 2050 the world’s population will be more than nine billion and food production must be increased by 70 per cent to feed all these people,” he said.

“That’s a very scary future. This work is one step in the right direction to helping increase food supply.”

Mr Leddin’s trip to Ethiopia is a pilot project for his plan to establish a new global non-government organisation called Plant Breeders Without Borders, similar to the medical network Doctors Without Borders.

“Plant breeders would volunteer and be matched to projects in developing countries,” he said.

“They would train locals and also mentor undergraduate students from Australia and overseas.

“I love working in villages with very limited resources. It’s like being an Indiana Jones of the plant breeding world, collecting things that could be lost forever if not retained.”

He will be working at an altitude of 2000 to 3000 metres above sea level where conditions are suitable for growing forage crops to feed farm animals. He will concentrate on improving yields of oats, native clover, sweet pea and vetch.

He won’t be using high-tech methods, just proven ways of selecting varieties and cross-breeding.

At his Yambuk home he has trial plots where seeds are sourced from “parent” plants and cross-pollinated by wind with barriers of rye corn protecting them from foreign pollen sources.

Mr Leddin began his studies at Melbourne University and completed a masters degree at the Hamilton pastoral research farm.

He now works with Gippsland-based Valley Seeds as one of less than 100 specialist plant breeders in Australia and has unique experience in gathering forage species from across the globe.

“My theme is, sow a seed and feed a person for a year, sow a tree and feed them for 10 years, sow the seed of knowledge in plant breeding and it lasts a lifetime.”

Details on how to assist are on his Facebook site Plant Breeders Without Borders.