Book Published: Farm Innovators - 2010
Innovations play an important role in food production as well as in optimizing resource utilization by farmers. An innovation is an idea, practice or object that is perceived as new by an individual or others in a given system. The technologies/practices that are developed through research are innovations which may be new varieties of crops and plants, new breeds of livestock, new chemicals and medicines, new technique of doing things etc. Irrespective of time period the idea or practice was originally developed, when a person first becomes aware of it, it is an innovation to that person. Using something old in new ways or applying something new to successfully produce desired social and economic outcome is an innovation.
Apart from innovations and scientific package of practices developed and transferred from R&D institutes, innovations in the form of grassroot level technologies and methodologies developed by some of the innovative farmers and rural youth are benefiting widely to farmers and have also been accepted across the system. Such innovative technologies and methodologies are largely confined to some locations. Benefits accrued from such innovative ideas need to be widely shared across the country. And the scientific talents behind such grassroot level innovations need to be encouraged and recognized. Valuable ideas and techniques generated by them largely go unnoticed owing to lack of proper documentation and opportunities for wider dissemination. An initial and pioneering attempt in this direction has been made by the Division of Agricultural Extension, ICAR, to document such innovations developed across the country in the form of this publication “Farm Innovators – 2010” for the benefit of various stakeholders.
The KVKs across the country and eight Zonal Project Directors have played a key role in searching and documenting these innovations of practical importance. The Zonal level expert committee analyzed innovations for their scientific logic and further screening was done at national level for selecting innovations with soundscientific base and wider applicability in the country.
Out of 196 farm innovations received 139 were finalized under eight thematic areas—Crop improvement (13); Crop production (16); Crop diversification (8); Crop protection (14); Farm machinery (61); Water Management (8); Live stock and fisheries management (10) and Post harvest technology and value-addition (9). These 139 selected innovations have been documented and presented in this publication in an uniform format giving details of innovators, innovations and their applications illustrated with suitable photographs.
