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Honey bee publish details |
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News and Views |
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| Title |
Scouting, Documentation and Dissemination of Grassroots Innovation and Traditional Knowledge at KVK, AC&RI, Madurai |
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Scouting, Documentation and Dissemination of Grassroots Innovation and Traditional Knowledge at KVK, AC&RI, Madurai
A one day meeting organized on 25th June, 2009 at KVK (Krishi Vigyan Kendra), AC&RI (Agricultural College and Research Institute), Madurai was attended by more than fifty scientists and extension workers. The Dean of TNAU and incharge of KVK (Krishi Vigyan Kendra) Madurai, Dr. S. Kumar assured all the help from the agricultural university and KVK Madurai, in supporting grassroots innovations. Murugesan, a farmer from Madurai demonstrated the use of banana fibres for preparing handicraft items like bags, mats, water carrier, balls, etc. Crop varieties like Dhiraj-101 developed by Dhiraj Lal Thummar of Amreli district, Gujarat and varieties of moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia), cluster bean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.)Taub) developed by Sundaram of Sikar district, Rajasthan were given to KVK Madurai for varietal trial in their fields. A desire to collaborate in scouting, documentation and validation was visible on every participant’s face.
Workshop on Scouting and Documentation for Botany Teachers
A workshop on Scouting and Documentation was organized by NIF with the help of the HBN Tamil Nadu collaborator SEVA on 26th June 2009 at Madurai. Mr. K. Jayaprakash from CR Herbal Research & Development Centre, Thanjore showed a herbarium made by him to the participants to motivate them to do even better. Dr. Karuppusamy of Madura College, Madurai agreed to cooperate in the preparation of herbaria and identification of plant samples collected by SEVA staff with the involvement of his students.
Gyan Shodh – A Social Internship for Students
Honey Bee AP, with the support of NIF conducted a unique experiment in the Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh in June 2009. A workshop viz., ‘Gyan Shodh’ was organized as a social internship opportunity for engineering students. Fifteen engineering students from BITS, Pilani, NIT Warangal, CVR College of Engineering Hyderabad, J B Institute of Engineering & Technology, Hyderabad and Chaitanya Bharati Institute of Technology participated in the activity. Students were sent in small groups of three each to different remote villages for a period of three days. The participants voluntarily proposed to make Gyan Shodh a regular event and also approached BITS, Pilani authorities to include the same in their Practice School, which is essentially an effort to establish institutionalized linkages between the industrial world and the academic world. Many colleges in AP have now been approaching Honey Bee AP to conduct such grassroots oriented activities for their students. The students have collected and documented traditional knowledge practices and stories in their project reports. Jilledu (Calotropis sp.) is used to remove thorns from body easily and is also applied on limbs along with nuvvula nune (sesame or gingely oil) during pain. Crushed leaf of picchaaku (Cissus quadrangularis L.) is applied to cure limb dislocation and pains, as well as muscle sprains. Pickle of nela usiri (Phyllanthus amarus Sch and Th.) is consumed to cure jaundice. Thaidalu, kakirekkalu and chittimuthyalu are few varieties of aromatic rice which have disappeared over time. It is said that their flavour and fragrance are incomparable. The students found a valiant 85 years old man called Somaji in a village called Dubba Thanda who is held in utmost reverence by his community because he fought with the Nizams and distributed 300 acres of land amongst all his people. In a recipe contest, the students felicitated Punagujju Laxmi who prepared two pickles namely, raale puvvu and budda gaashe, which are reported to have good medicinal values and were consumed 30 years back. They have also tried to compile a Village Knowledge Register and filed it with the Village Administrative Officer
Launching of SCAI (Students’ Club for Augmenting Innovations at Grassroots) in Andhra Pradesh
Honey Bee AP during 2008-2009 has formed six SCAIs in the state of Andhra Pradesh. This brings the total clubs in AP to nine, the oldest formed in the year 2006 at Singareni Women’s Degree College, Khammam district. This club has already scouted and documented over 560 traditional practices and forwarded them to NIF through Honey Bee AP. Osmania Engineering College, Hyderabad, Mallareddy College of Management, Hyderabad, Aluru College of Management, Warangal, Kothagudem School of Mining, Talasila College of Management, Vivekvardhini College, Kothagudem, Engineering College, Andhra University, Vishakhapatnam and Bhoj Reddy Engineering College for Women, Hyderabad are the other colleges which have formed such clubs. SCAI of Engineering College, Osmania University undertook mentoring of three innovators. Students and faculty are actively participating in this activity.
Designing for the Grassroots
A meeting on ‘Development of Design Consortium’ and Network Building Workshop to promote Grassroots Innovations through GRIDS (Grassroots Innovation Design for Sustainability) was organized by NIF, Pune Design Foundation and others on 10th May 2009 at National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. This city being the heart of the designing industry, the designers, academicians and researchers were encouraged to choose innovations of their interest from the NIF database and make sustainable products out of them thriough value addition. Amongst the innovations that were showcased in the workshop are Leo Single Pot – an energy efficient stove by Prakti Design Lab, Pondicherry, a Fibre Extraction Machine developed by Laxmikant Cherri from Goa, LED Spot Lighting Torch by C.V. Pathak of Pune, Bullet Proof Jacket by Makrand Kaale, Innovative Head for Golden Embossing by Ravindra Ganpat Chapde and others. Infor-mation about Techpedia (www. techpedia.sristi.org), a portal of technology projects by engineering students was also shared so that various technical institutions can upload projects of their students
and link these with real needs of
small enterprises as well as informal sector.
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee 20(2); 20-21, 2010 |
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