Mohammed Ameer Babu, a farmer nominated by the Malappuram Krishi Vignan Kendra of Kerala Agricultural University, has been awarded the prestigious Jagjivan Ram Innovative Farmer Award 2021 at the national level.
He received the award from Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, at a function for celebrating the foundation day of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research in New Delhi recently.
The award instituted by the ICAR includes a citation and a prize money of ₹1 lakh. He was selected from among more than 100 farmers across the country.
Mohammed Ameer Babu, an ex-employee of BSNL, shifted to agriculture and became a role model for many farmers in his locality by adopting innovative steps for enhancing income from agriculture.
He started open-precision farming from 2012 onwards in his panchayat. Besides paddy cultivation on 35 cents of own land, he started cultivation in leased land with automated irrigation system. He ensured season/market-oriented cultivation of vegetables, fruits and flowers for better profit by adopting poly house cultivation for off season vegetable and quality seedlings production, said a press release from the KAU.
He also constructed a check dam to address water scarcity in 300 acres of cultivable land. Farm mechanization and customised organic production are also his areas of interest.
He acts as a service provider of protective structure construction and installation of micro irrigation systems. Many more similar activities and highly influential social roles have made him the winner of various other awards in district and state level earlier also.
