Success Story 10. Innovative Rice Farmers Meet

As per the kind directions from Hon’ble Director General, ICAR - to help spur the innovative spirit of Indian Rice Farmers, the Directorate of Rice Research organized “Innovative Rice Farmers’ Meet” at DRR Campus, on 2nd August 2011. The meet aimed at showcasing innovations of rice farmers from across the country and wide publicity was given using different platforms. A total of 112 nominations were received from different states. The committee constituted by the Project Director had a series of meetings for selection of innovative farmers. Selection was made based on parameters such as uniqueness and originality of the innovation, stage of development, degree of success (or potential for success) of adoption by other farmers and impact or benefits. The single most criteria used to assess the applications /nominations was that the innovation must have potential for use on a wider scale and be able to demonstrate a positive effect on the rice cultivation. At the end of this exercise, we could finalize and document 26 innovations that are likely to have impact on the rice farming at local or regional levels. Some of the prominent farmers innovations are (1) Land race selection (2) Innovative water distribution (3) Modified drum seeder (4) Modified weeder for SRI method of rice cultivation (5) Selection and popularization of rice varieties for arsenic condition and cyclone prone areas and (6) Indigenously developed bio-pesticide formulation for rice crop. For the meet the innovators were invited to share their innovations through presentations. On this occasion the book “Rice Innovations” and a folder “DRR in the service of Farming Community” was released.