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I have received congratulations and good wishes from a number
of stovers for having been shortlisted by the Shell Foundation. Thanks to all of
them. I am sorry that I cannot answer each of them individually, because I am
terribly busy. It appears that the financial situation of our Government
has improved, because three of our proposals that were held in
abeyance, have recently been sanctioned by different funding agencies. The
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development has sanctioned us funds for
a three year project for establishment of 30 low cost tissue culture
laboratories and 300 franchisee nurseries in the State of Maharashtra, for
producing good quality planting material of sugarcane, banana, ginger and
turmeric. The plantlets produced in tissue culture are too costly to be used by
farmers directly as planting material. Therefore the micropropagated plantlets
would be supplied to the nurseries, which would use them as mother plants, and
multiply them for one year under nursery conditions. The nursery
grown plants would be sold to farmers. This is a pilot project. The
potential entrepreneurs would receive financial help from the Bank, but we have
to see to it that the entrepreneurs succeed. Potential market for this business
in Maharashtra State alone is annually US$400 million, and one would require at
least 4000 tissue culture laboratories and 80,000 nurseries to satisfy this
demand. The Ministry of Rural Development has recognised the value of the
work we have been conducting on developing Bamboo as a material for constructing
rural outdoor structures such as fences, water tanks, huts, cattle corrals,
scaffoldings for vines etc. The Ministry has asked us to submit a proposal under
which 100 farmers would establish bamboo plantations and we would teach them how
to construct various bamboo items. The Ministry of Science and Technology has
agreed to pay us a grant of US$ 10,000 every year for the next five years as
seed money for conducting preliminary experiments on innovative ideas of ours in
order to test their feasibility. If the preliminary experiments showed that we
were on the right track, we then approach a funding agency with a proposal for
large scale funding. The Government of India has also decided to spend money on
programmes aimed at empowering rural women. Under this programme, we have
been asked to submit a proposal for establishing a rural technology
training centre for women. About 20 innovative technologies developed by our
Institute would be taught to women's self help groups. We have already
commercialised several of these thechnologies through a co-operative established
by us. The co-operative has been in profit from the day one. The National
Institute for Rural Development has asked us to establish permanent live
demonstrations of these technologies on their campus. The briquetting technology
has also caught the imagination of people. We hope to start at least 50
centres during the current calendar year for producing char briquettes in the
sugarcane growing areas of Maharashtra state. The "Sarai" stove-and-cooker
system which would be using our briquettes as fuel, is selling very well. We
have no doubts at all about finding a market for our char briquette
entrep[reneurs.
A.D.Karve
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