| 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. |
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