Name : Leela Ram Sahu
District & State : Dhamtari, Chhattisgarh
Category : Agricultural (General)
Award : State
Award Function : 9th National Grassroots Innovation Awards
Award Year : 2017
Innovator Profile
A progressive farmer, Leela Ram (55), has has improved and conserved a good quality traditional brinjal variety and has been maintaining the purity by mass selection. The variety, known for its fruit quality, is resistance to major pests and diseases.
Leela Ram lives with his wife and two sons, who are pursuing higher education. His three daughters are married and settled in their respective families. He owns about 7.5 acres of land where he cultivates paddy, gram, black gram, vegetables and traditional local crops like lakhodi, bhains-teti, and dang kanda. Prior to taking up agriculture he worked as a tailor briefly. Aware of the water scarcity problem in his area, he started making check dams, which helped in irrigation of the fields, for which he was much appreciated by the villagers. He thereafter took to farming full time and started devoting his time in his own farm experiments. Leela Ram is also a social worker and guides villagers on the problems shared with him. He hopes one day, his variety gets diffused to all parts of the country.
http://nif.org.in/innovation/improved-traditional-variety-of-brinjal-niranjan-bhata/943