"Our farmers have developed several new techniques to enhance agricultural productivity and production by utilising their traditional knowledge. These techniques should be collected and utilised in a big way," Sompal said at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) award ceremony here.

The minister also presented Jagjivan Ram Kisan Puruskar, 1998 to GN Raju Yadav of Guduru village in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh for his contributions in innovative farming practices. Raju has introduced many new varieties and improved practices for rice, groundnut and blackgram and achieved highest productivity in the region.

In addition, he was able to obtain record production of mango, coconut, tomato and roses.

The awards have been instituted by the ICAR to provide recognition to agriculturalscientists and institutions for making outstanding contributions to the growth and development of agricultural science and technology. The minister also presented awards to 57 research scientists, 4 extension workers, one farmer, two ICAR institutes and one state agricultural university.

Sompal presented the best extension scientist/worker awards for the triennium 1996-98 to Santosh Kumar Rout, Indu Grover, S Sudhakar and D Thyagrajan for their innovativeness in developing extension education programmes.

Rout carried out diagnostic surveys using participatory rural appraisal tools for identifying constraints and introduced sustainable agricultural technologies as an alternative source of income in coastal wetland to reduce pressure on mangroves.

Grover played a key role in implementing a centrally-sponsored scheme entitled `women in agriculture'.

She carried out a survey in 30 selected villages to assess training needs and socio-economic profile of women-farmers and motivated them to form 30 womengroups. The best institution awards for 1998 have been given to Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Central Soil Salinity Research institute (CSSRI), Karnal, and Project Directorate on Biological Control, Bangalore, on the basis of preceding 10 years performance in the field of agricultural science, he said.

Tnau has been adjudged the best institution for playing significant role in sustaining green revolution and setting the pace for women empowerment through 50 per cent enrolment for girl students. Tnau has also made significant contribution towards entrepreneurship development and introduction of commercial agriculture besides releasing 76 crop varieties.

On the other hand, CSSRI has made its mark by developing and popularising saline soil reclamation package which has been extended to about eight lakh hectares of degraded land.

The salt tolerant varieties of rice, wheat, mustard and gram developed by CSSRI have helped poor farmers.