Hubballi: Laxmibai Zulapi, 77, also known as Bagalkot’s brinjal woman, has drawn the attention of President Pranab Mukherjee for her work in conserving an indigenous breed of brinjal for four decades. She’s been honoured with the consolation biennial award of National Innovation Foundation (NIF), an autonomous body of the Centre’s department of science and technology, recently.
This woman from Hulyal village of Jamakhandi taluk in Bagalkot has taken up preservation of bringals as her mission. She developed a breed of it called HZKB-1 and even got a patent for it. Laxmibai said the President was impressed by the ‘Kari Badane’ brinjal at the awards ceremony in New Delhi. She and the ‘Kari Badane’ (black brinjal) go back 40 years, when she found two brinjals.
“Those brinjals were black and shiny compared to others. I picked them out of curiosity and started conserving them. I cultivated the seeds for one year and grew them every year. After two years, my family members decided to sow them on one acre of land. As the fruits were big and bright, people from the surrounding villages started buying our brinjals,” she said.
