Grassroots Innovations in Agriculture

SUMAN SAHAI

STEPS Centre Symposium 2009, “Innovation, Sustainability, Development – A New Manifesto”

University of Sussex, 24 September, 2009, London

Genetic Diversity in field Gene-Seed Banks

• Located in the village, • Owned by the community• Administered by village youth committees supervised by village elders• Farmers take seed & return three times after harvest

• Seeds of traditional varieties of crops sp. rice, collected from farmer’s fields

• Farmer’s knowledge of properties documented -drought- flood tolerant - maturity period - resistance to pest& disease - scientists can use this to identify traits for breeding

Zero Energy Gene-Seed Bank

- Ambient temp storage- No cooling- no energy cost- no carbon footprint- Replaces energy with labor - Seed viability maintained by growing out every season

Zero Energy Gene-Seed Bank

Zero Energy Gene -Seed Bank

Seed processed to reduce moisture below 10 %

Agrobiodiversity in the Gene Bank

…….. Gene Bank

……..Gene Bank

…….Gene Bank

Seed Bank

Seed Bank

Evaluating Genetic Traits

• Collaboration with research institutes

• 5 drought tolerant rice varieties • 2 new genes conferring resistance to Bacterial Leaf Blight

- Plants that animals don’t eat

- Plants known in indigenous medicine

- Plants used in tribal rituals

Plant based pesticides

from -

Preparing a ‘Pesticide’

• Making extracts of plant parts in cold water, hot water, diluted with alcohol

• Standardising dilutions & package of practices

• Testing pesticidal properties on crops

Crop trials

Karanj extract on Cabbage

Crop trials…

Karanj on Rice

Traditional Panchgavya – 5 products of (native) cow: mixture of cow dung, cow urine,

milk, curd & ghee - known to have valuable properties - varied applications in crop %

livestock management

Current Panchgavya shown to - Increase milk yield in cows

- Increase egg laying in chickens

- Improve health of farm animals & control disease

- Enhance soil fertility

- Promote plant growth ( growth hormone)

- Control fungal disease

Curent Panchgavya applications….

T-Cell blastogenesis in chicken administered cow urine

B-Cell Blastogenesis in chicken administered cow urine