Strengthening Farmer Led Innovation for

Sustainable Agricultural Transformation

in Tribal Areas

Bhanwar L. Dhaka
 Tribal Livelihoods and Agriculture

The tribal is the most disadvantaged section of our society

poverty
illiteracy
lack of access to social and technical services.
Added to the backwardness
adverse terrain conditions
inaccessibility of the areas
lack of infrastructure facilities
unsteady agricultural economy
ignorance
exploitation
 Tribal Livelihoods and Agriculture
Agrarian economy
cultivation
animal husbandry
hunting
fishing
collection of forest products
Agriculture practices are much more behind the time
Adoption of modern agricultural practices remains
sporadic
Inappropriate technologies for marginal areas
complex
very diverse
risk-prone conditions
 Tribal Livelihoods and Agriculture
Agriculture features as top-priority productive sector in key
initiatives for tribal area’s development
Structural transformation of agriculture is key for:
reducing poverty through broad-based economic growth
enhancing food security
creating value-added and employment
improving the export performance
The key ingredients for sustainable resource management are
not external inputs
but rather the farmers’ knowledge
management capacities and
skilful manipulation of the locally available resources.
 What is all about Farmer Innovation
• Dynamics of indigenous knowledge (IK)

• Process through which individuals or groups in a

given locality discover or develop and apply new and
better ways of managing the available resources

• Leading to technical, socio-economic and institutional

innovations
• Farmers, especially resource poor farmers,
continuously experiment, adapt and innovate
Conceptual Framework of Farmer Innovation

Scientific
Act On
Knowledge

Farmers Informal Value Farmer

Wisdom Experimentation Addition Innovations

Act On Indigenous
Knowledge

Source: Prolinnova- Ethiopia, 2006

 Why do Local Innovation Processes Need to be
Enhanced
Diversity requires location specific practices
Farmers live and work under a
wide range of ecological
climatic
economic and socio-cultural conditions
the range of farming systems

Not just across regions or country but also within districts and
even localities

Each farming system has its own dynamics, strengths, challenges

and opportunities
Why Do Local Innovation Processes Need To Be
Enhanced
Rapidly changing conditions require local capacities to adapt

Conditions for farmers are constantly changing affected by

the emergence of new pests and diseases,
effects of climate change,
and for those who see new opportunities opening up.

Recognizing farmers’ innovation is a step towards encouraging

this process and helping farmers find ways to adapt more
quickly to ever changing bio-physical, socio-economic
environment.
Much Local Innovation But Often Overloooked

• Farmers have carried out most experimentation, adaptation

and innovation in agriculture since time immemorial
• Out of necessity, curiosity, by accident, serendipity
• Seldom recognised even by documenters of IK
• Little attention to LI in Farming Systems Research and
Farmer Participatory Research – scientists were still
regarded as the source of ideas to test
• Little awareness of how farmers experimented with
package components
 Farmer Led Innovation
Groundnut Digger Sh. Yusuf Khan
Sh. Nathulalji Jangid
Rajasthan

This is an innovative
machine capable to take
out left over ground nuts
by further Digging and
separation i.e. mainly
carrying out post
harvesting work. The
efficiency of the machine is
99%.
 Improved Multicrop Thresher
 Improved feed mechanism with
gearbox for variable speed
 Separate Cutting and Threshing in Sh. Madan Lal Kumawat
succession. Rajasthan
 Two Feeding arrangement for different
crops.
 Variable blower speed
 Suitable for various grains, pulses and
groundnut
 Improved design reduces load on the
driving source thus is energy saving.
 Grains are more cleaner and thus do
not require further cleaning before
bagging.
Dry Land Forestry Sundaram Verma
Rajasthan
Pits around 6 inches in
diameter and 1.5 feet in
depth are digged and
plantation is done such that
the plant is placed around 6
inches below the ploughing
depth. The wet mud is
taken out from the pit and
used to cover the plant,
which keep the moisture
for longer period
Pit Drill Machine
(Earth Hole digger)

Trench digger

Radhey Shyamji Tailor

Nathulalji Jangid
Rajasthan
Foot Operated Sprayer Mr. Parbatbhai Vaghani
Gujarat
Energy derived from movement
of feet while walking is
converted into pressure with the
help of cylinder and piston. This
in turn enables the spraying of
the liquid.
No additional energy is required
to operate the sprayer.
Operator can cover two parallel
rows simultaneously and thereby
cut down the operation cost and
time by half.
Dwarf, High yielding Mr. Narayan Bhatt
Arecanut Variety Karnataka

He used Heerehalli dwarf and Tall

variety which yields more is selected
as parent lines for crossing.
Tall variety: It grows to 50-60 ft,
bears 4-5 bunches, yields about 450-
500 riped nuts.
Heerehalli dwarf: It grows to 20-25
ft, bears one bunch and yields 100-
150 riped nuts.
He had crossed these two and
developed a new variety which is 20-
25 ft and yields an average of 400-
500 nuts.
 Seed Scatterer Mr. Dharmendra Patidar
Madhya Pradesh
The container is cut from the center
and a rotor with metal blades is fitted
in it
The rotor is attached to motor which is
driven by the battery power form
Kisan Torch
With the help of a regulator fixed to
the side of the scattering machine the
quantity of seed or fertilizer scattered
can be regulated.
Seed is fed into the machine from top.
The output is a controlled, uniform
scattering of the seeds.
Paddy thresher
Roman, Amarbasti

Animal Washer

Mr. G. Vijaykumar
Karnataka
Innovations Source
Prunning for higher boll formation in cotton Patel (1991 f)*
Ratooning of Kharif cotton -do-
Raising of sorghum as mixed crop in cotton -do-
as bird percher
Reclamation of sodic soil using water Monika S. Garg**
hyacinth and paddy straw
Paddy garlic relay cropping Monika S. Garg**
Mustard + fenugreek mixed farming Monika S. Garg**
Control of Tungru virus through growing 1-2 Monika S. Garg**
rows of Sesbania as border crop in paddy
fields
Innovations Source
Control of gudhi bug and earhead incidence in *
rice by application of Parasi (Cleistanthus
collinus) leaves @ 150kg/ha
Insect pest control in tomato and brinjal using *
bamboo soaked water
Dusting ash on garlic and onion
Seed Treatment with `Kidamari' (Aristolochia Makvana,
bracteolata) leaf extract so as to effectively Raymal J. 1992.
control termite and white grub Honey Bee,
3(3&4):17.

Bitter gourd germinates faster and develops well Prakash, T. N.

when the seeds are soaked in milk for a day prior 1997. Honey
to sowing. Bee, 8(4):10.
Importance of Farmer Led Innovation

Helping resource poor farmers

Necessary for localized success
Farmers as innovators
Increases success of programs
Social learning
Effective communication 
 Strategy To Enhance Innovation Process
•Creating access to resources for innovative farmers

•Crafting the cutting edge in the formal innovation system

•Conducting study on system interface and policy discourses

•Creating opportunities for farmers to share their innovations

• Offering alternatives

• Improving farmers’ experimental design

• Filling local knowledge gaps

• Facilitating mutual
 Challenges
Farmers' Perspective

• Lack of accommodative attitude of outsiders

• Lack of adequate opportunity for farmers to decide on
research priorities
• Lack of financial support
• Lack of peers support
• Illiteracy
 Challenges
Researchers' Perspective

• Difficult to use it in the conventional statistical methods of

analysis
• Unfamiliarity with the concept of farmer innovation
• The methods, tools and operational guidelines are not
adequately developed,
• Identification of innovative farmers is not an easy task for
many researchers.
 Way Forward
Making Farmer Innovation Support fund available and
accessible to farmers
We need to work for the recognition and
implementation of relevant policies
We need to support extensive academic works to
explain some of the gray areas in the farmer and formal
innovation systems interface
 Way Forward

We should be able to look how the farmer and the formal
innovation systems are effectively linked, in which case
the initiative for the linkage and collaboration should
come from farmers’ side.
We need to improve the methodologies and working tools
that help to identify IF and to make farmer led
Participatory Innovation Development [PID] to happen
 Conclusion

This paper tries to explore an alternative approach that

should be tried out to respond more realistically to the
needs of small holder farmers. It pays more attention to
farmer innovation system, which is not so visible and thus
not adequately recognized although it is surely driving the
livelihood systems of the small farmers in marginal areas.
Thanks