Name : Budhhdeb Sahu
District & State : Angul, Orissa
Category : Herbal products
Award : Appreciation
Award Function : 4th National Grassroots Innovation Awards
Award Year : 2007
Innovation Description
Budhadeba Sahu (55), lives with his family in the forest range of Angul district, Orissa. Sahu could only complete primary education because of financial constraints and had to start agriculture at a young age of 12. He has six acres of upland. He got this land under resettlement and rehabilitation scheme from Govt., as he and his father had to vacate their own land in Rengali water irrigation project 24 years back (in the same area). He is growing paddy, groundnuts, moong and vegetables on this small land, and manages to meet his daily requirements. He lives in a modest thatched mud house surrounded by greeneries. Over the past couple of years, his financial condition has improved as his two sons have also started contributing to the family�s income.He has developed a herbal practice for the ripening of banana using a local plant. Regarding the source of his knowledge, he mentions that years ago a saint informed him about the medicinal properties of this plant. He observed that these leaves had an inherent tendency of being �hot�, which he thought could probably be utilized to ripen bananas and mangoes. His experiments with these leaves worked wonderfully and ever since, he has been using this herb to ripen fruits like banana and mangoes between 12-24 hours.Budhadeba Sahu has taught this practice to two other farmers of his village and they are using this practice of ripening banana. Sahu is the original practitioner of this herbal ripening practice as elaborate fieldwork in the village and surrounding areas has confirmed and established its uniqueness. He never received any accolades or recognition from any quarter for his work until the team of Honey Bee Network documented it.
This practice was presented in the Joint implementation Committee (NIF-CSIR) and was taken up by CFTRI, Mysore for validation. The results of the same are awaited. The patent process of the practice has been initiated.
http://nif.org.in/innovation/Ripening_of_Banana_by_Herbs/376