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. 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