‘Rice Man’ of India, Dadaji Khobragade Died: The Scientist Among the Farmers
Dadaji died, but people will continue to live on his inventions. On a very small plot of land, this genius invented many varieties of rice, and most of his varieties are now commercialised and marketed and sold in the large quantities.
Khobragade developed a highly successful rice variety called HMT-Sona which yielded 80% more rice than the conventional variety. HMT-Sona is now grown all over India.
Dadaji was an illiterate person and having no formal education in the agricultural college. He did not have any degree in the science. What he had was an unwavering love for the agriculture and agricultural processes and desire to invent something new. He went on experimenting and producing different variations of the rice seeds by his experiments in mutations and careful observation.
His work was recognised and he won awards from the Punjabrao Krishi Vidyapeeth (PKV), he got Krishi-Bhushan award in 2003-04, the award that turned out to be a fake metal award and it did not ensure any financial benefit. His practices were stolen and commercially exploited by the bigger cultivators.
He was also selected among India’s seven most powerful Entrepreneurs by Forbes in 2010.
Imagine if he could have patented his innovations. He could have become one of the richest persons in a few days time. He did not get support from the government as it was needed to keep his innovative practices studied deeply and documented from the scientific point of view so that more new seeds would have been created.
He was inspired by Dr Ambedkar and was an Ambedkarite. Only when the social activists from the Ambedkarite movement started paying attention to the work of this great genius, he began to get some recognition, but he was a very old man then and he could have perhaps not been able to take benefit of this attention.
His life and his innovative brain can be compared with the great giant from African American community, J.W. Carver, who invented many things in the field of agriculture. Dadaji Khobragade is the “Rice Man” of India.
Author – Mangesh Dahiwale, Human Rights Activist, Image credit – Forbes
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बहादुर हो,आपकी टीम जो काम कर रही है,बाबा साहेब के जो काम वो ना कर सके,ये काम वो ही लगते हैं सचमुच आप दिल की गहराइयों में पहुँच चुके हैं,आपकी सार-गर्भित टिप्पणियों/लेखों को पढ़ कर मन दर्वित हो उठता है़.और प्रकृति से प्रार्थना करने लग जाते हैं कि velivada को सही सलामत रखें ताकि गरीबों की दुआऐं इनको मिलती रहें ,कयूँ कि एक वंचित/गरीब की दुआ प्रकृति सच्चे तरीके से सुनती है.