Ghaziabad Farmer Neelam Tyagi Honoured with Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Innovative Farmer Award 2025

The Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS) has conferred the prestigious Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Innovative Farmer Award 2025 on Neelam Tyagi of Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, in recognition of her remarkable contributions to agricultural innovation, farmer empowerment, and community development.

The award ceremony, held at the Pusa Campus in New Delhi, celebrated Tyagi’s two-decade-long journey of transforming the lives of over 30,000 farmers across 10 districts of Uttar Pradesh, particularly those of distressed women and young farmers. Her work is distinguished by a holistic approach that seamlessly integrates sustainable practices, scientific knowledge, and community empowerment.

Born on 8 February 1975 in Suhana village, Ghaziabad, Neelam Tyagi has pioneered mixed crop farming models, especially integrating sugarcane and turmeric, which have increased farmer incomes by up to 80% while reducing pesticide use and soil erosion. Through her agro-processing unit, she markets diverse value-added food products under the ‘Nitara Brand’, creating direct market linkages for more than 4,000 farmers and eliminating middlemen—enhancing profits by 20–25%.

“By combining intercropping, value addition, and direct marketing, Neelam Tyagi’s innovations have proven significantly more profitable than traditional methods, more than doubling per-acre profits. Her work embodies Dr. Borlaug’s spirit of innovation and dedication to ensuring food security and farmers’ welfare,” the TAAS trustees said in their citation.

Tyagi’s women-centric models, including 300 self-help groups and a registered KOPUS AGRO Farmer Producers Organization, have directly benefited more than 4,500 women and 5,000 men farmers by aggregating produce and securing profitable retail sales. Her Agri-Clinic and Agri-Business Centre has trained over 12,000 youth in integrated pest management (IPM), fostering self-employment and creating a new generation of agricultural leaders. She also established a Mahila Kisan Vikas Federation involving 1,500 women farmers, which supplies 10 tonnes of vegetables daily to Bharti Walmart.

Her pioneering work has been widely recognized with several national and regional awards, including the National Award for Innovation in Agriculture by the Society for Community Mobilization for Sustainable Development, New Delhi with Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat & ICAR-ATARI (2017); Krishi Prerana Samman by Mahindra Samridhi (2019); Women Farmer Innovative Award by Hi-tech Horticultural Society, Rajasthan (2019); and the Pusa Farmer Innovative Award by ICAR, New Delhi (2025). She has also served as a member of the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority (2012–2015) and as Honorary Professor of Practice in Biosciences at Career Point University, Himachal Pradesh (2024).

The trustees of TAAS noted that the award reflects the spirit of Nobel Laureate Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution, and honours individuals whose innovations significantly enhance farmer incomes and strengthen food security.