Shri Sanjay Anant Patil (58), an innovative farmer from Goa has been conferred with the coveted IARI –Innovative Farmer Award 2023 by the ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) New Delhi for his outstanding contributions to Natural Farming and zero-energy micro-irrigation system. He received the award at the hands of Shri Kailash Choudhary, Hon’ble Union Minister for State, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Govt. of India on 4th March 2023 at New Delhi in the presence of Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Director General, ICAR and other officials of ICAR.
Shri Sanjay Patil is a green revolutionary, known to many as the ‘one-man-army’ because he single-handedly transformed a barren plot of land measuring ten acres, into a lush green natural farm (Kulaghar) with technical guidance from ICAR-CCARI, Goa. Even though he is having formal school education up to the 11th class but he possesses the knowledge and skills of a top engineer when it comes to water conservation and natural farming practices using Jeevamrut produced from Indian breed cow dung and he is an inspiration to small farmers in the state of Goa.
A team constituted by the Director, ICAR-CCARI, Goa visited the farmer, documented his technologies through good quality photographs, and prepared the application for the nomination of IARI –Innovative Farmer Award 2023. Shri Sanjay Patil profusely expressed his gratitude to Dr. Parveen Kumar, Director, ICAR-CCARI, Goa and his team for recognizing his hard work and innovation. Dr. Pramod Sawant, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Goa congratulated Shri Sanjay Patil for his outstanding achievement.
