Book

Description

Farmer innovations and re-inventions is a subject that is increasingly making people sit up and think. At the very least it underpins a refreshing new approach to indigenous environmental knowledge that goes further than just passive admiration. At the most it is a potentially important new direction for research and extension wherever else the conventional approaches have failed to deliver. To highlight the value of this rich resource and to develop mechanisms for local innovations and re-inventions to find their way into the formal research and development system, documentation of farmer innovations and re-inventions is necessary to give the real picture of its wealth. Scientific enquiry into the documented practices would make it to a status of formal knowledge base and studying extent of adoption of these practices by the farmers will give the real picture of farmers innovations and re-inventions. Based on the various constraints faced and suggestion given by the innovative farmers a comprehensive strategy was developed which includes identification of farmer innovators, recognition of farmer innovators, documentation of farmer innovations and re-inventions, testing of farmer innovations and re-inventions for scientific rationality and validity, commercialisation of the innovations and re-inventions, networking of farmer innovators, providing farmer innovation support fund, monitoring and evaluation of the farmer innovator network groups, farmer innovator to farmer innovator cross visits and popularisation of farmer innovations and re-inventions. Strategy suggested in the study will help different agencies in promotion of farmer innovations and re-inventions.