The Hindu : NIF to honour six grassroots innovators from State

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 17, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

NIF to honour six grassroots innovators from State

By Alladi Jayasri

BANGALORE Dec. 16. It is that time of the year when the Ahmedabad-based National Innovation Foundation (NIF) celebrates and honours grassroots innovations that have changed the way communities access resources and move towards self-reliance, and asks the innovators to stand up and be counted.

Karnataka, which bagged nine awards last year, has won six this time. The second Annual Award Function 2002 to honour outstanding grassroots innovators and traditional knowledge experts will be held in New Delhi tomorrow, where President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam will give away the awards.

The six from the State who will be honoured tomorrow includes a farmer from Channapatna, M. Lingamadaiah, who has developed a new variety of paddy that he calls "Mysore Mallige". Mr. Lingamadaiah purchased 10 gm of seeds of this unusual paddy variety from farmers in the Philippines in 1994 at an international seeds seminar. Mr. Lingamadaiah grew these seeds organically, without using pesticides or chemicals, on a fresh field. After a couple of seasons, he got 30 kg of seeds and planted them on a one-acre plot prepared for organic farming. He used green manure, tank silt, and farmyard manure and got a disease- and pest-free crop. Fellow farmers soon wanted to emulate Mr. Lingamadaiah and, now, quite a few of them are happily growing Mysore Mallige, which can be grown in any season, grows uniformly, and has a milling recovery of 80 per cent.

G.K. Ratnakar of Jayapura, Koppa, has invented a modified turboelectric generator. Mr. Ratnakar manufactures the "Turbyn" generator on a commercial basis. He has set up 21 power-generation projects each of 1 or 2 kV capacity in Dakshina Kannada, Kodagu, Hassan, and Chikmagalur districts. His innovation has made uninterrupted power supply in the rural areas a reality. A water source is all that the generator demands, and uses three-inch pipes. For Rs. 30,000, the generator can be installed even in hilly regions and remote places. It is almost noiseless, and maintenance free.

"Sompady Jack" is a jackfruit variety developed by Harish Chandra Shettar. The 69-year-old has a 4-acre farm in Puttur, Dakshina Kannada, and loves grafting fruits like mango and jackfruit. He decided to find a jackfruit variety with less latex, and apply the rejuvenation and grafting techniques to cashew and mango. He began in 1988 and, three years later, got his first yield — tasty, aromatic jackfruit minus the messy latex.

A Bangalore-based retired electrical and mechanical engineer, M.S.V. Naidu, has come up with 32 ideas whose time has come. He can regale you with ideas on how to stop hunting for the end of the cello-tape, fix the sari pallu so that it doesn't fall off, and has invented mechanical devices that can break coconuts or roast corn-on-the-cob evenly.

M.J. Joseph of Bhatkal has developed a device for climbing palm trees, which can be a boon to coconut and areca growers.

Narayana Bhat has come up with a dwarf variety of the areca palm that does away with the need for climbing it in the first place.

For coordinating and scouting for the innovations, T.N. Prakash Kammaradi, Associate Professor of Agro Economics in the University of Agricultural Sciences, who also edits the innovations journal, "Hittala Gida", is being honoured specially by the NIF.

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