Name : A. Balakrishnan
District & State : Wayanad (Wynad), Kerala
Category : Plant varieties
Award : Consolation
Award Function : 5th National Grassroots Innovation Awards
Award Year : 2009
Innovation Description
(Don’t bother about what others say, concentrate on your work; the quest for knowledge should not be affected by other’s comments)
Balakrishnan (59), an innovative farmer from Kerala, has developed two quick wilt resistant varieties of pepper namelyAswathi and Suvarna through crossing.
He was born in an agricultural family in Wayanad, the hilly district of Kerala where agriculture is the main source of livelihood. Paddy, plantain, coffee and pepper are the major crops in the area. The original inhabitants of the district constitute the tribals while the rest are migrants from the plains. His father also migrated here from the neighbouring district of Kozhikode. Presently, his family consists of his wife and two children.
As agriculture was not a profitable venture then, his father insisted upon him to look for some permanent job in non-farm sector. But in 1968 he decided to initiate himself into the agriculture field, just after the completion of class ten, as agriculture was his passion. Of the two acres he owned, he used one acre for paddy crop and another one for coffee and pepper plantation. After sometime he started concentrating more on pepper plantation, as the crop gave comparatively better profit than paddy.
In the 1960s, Panniyur was the popular variety of pepper of the region and was known for higher and early yield. He also started cultivating the variety of Panniyur along with the other local varieties such as Suganthakurumullaku, Karikonta, Cheruvally, Kalluvally, Uthirankotta and Balankota. Apart from working on his pepper plantation, Balakrishnan has also does budding on coffee, and grafting in flower and vegetable crops.
http://nif.org.in/innovation/Quick_wilt_resistant_-varieties_-of_-pepper/50