Manifesto: Suman Sahai - Grassroots Innovations in Agriculture
-
Upload
steps-centre -
Category
Technology
-
view
681 -
download
0
description
Transcript of Manifesto: Suman Sahai - Grassroots Innovations in Agriculture
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