> The man or woman who could be the next Einstein may well be tending a cassava field right now.

Probably not. Einstein was not a solitary genius. He lived in a culture and society that placed high value on learning and especially math.

He was also in communication with some very gifted people such as Emmy Noether who actually discovered the mathematical foundation for much of his work.

Srinivasan Ramanujan on the other hand is a much better example of finding someone who had super human abilities in an unexpected place.