The Lesser Known Padma Awardee – Grassroots Innovator Sundaram Verma

Team L&M

Sundaram Verma, a native of Danta (Ramgarh), a village in the Sikar district of Rajasthan, is one of the Padma Shri awardees this year. Verma, a grassroots innovator is known for growing not one or two but as many as 50,000 trees in the arid Shekhawati region of Rajasthan using a technique of Dryland Agroforestry called Green Grassroots Plantation Techniques for Combating Desertification that requires only one litre of water per tree. Verma has also done a lot of research on arid crops.

The National Innovation Foundation (NIF), an autonomous body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, has been supporting Verma, who entered farming for the love of it rejecting a government job, for long now. It has also been using Verma’s technique for planting trees under the “greening the desert” initiative.

Verma improved the plant variety of Kabuli Chana. His plant variety Kabuli Chana – SR1 has medium bold seeds (higher test weight) and is superior in terms of yield and pest resistance; and it was successfully registered with Protection of Plant Varieties & Farmers’ Rights Authority (PPV&FRA). Two other plant varieties that Verma improved are Guar (Cluster Bean) and Moth Bean. The new improved Guar (cluster bean)-SR23 and Moth bean (SR1) are both high-yielding crops. In addition, Verma has also been cultivating and conserving local landraces/cultivars of various crops since many years.

For several years in a row, the grassroots innovators are being recognized at different categories of the Padma awards, one of the highest civilian awards of India, which are given in various disciplines — literature and education, arts, science and engineering, trade and industry, civil services, public affairs, sports, and medicine and inspiring the generation to innovate further!