The technologies developed for application at village level, whether it is agriculture related, water harvesting or health and hygiene, are often away from the vicinity of common man. The role of an intermediary to introduce, fine tune and modify technologies are very important if it has to be adopted at village level. Quiet often the technologies need to be field tested in the specific local conditions before replicating. Being an organization responsive to the local needs, RASTA found a big gap in the technology promotion aspects in the district and it has undertaken it as a primary role in its functioning. During the past 20 years RASTA has been able to introduce, fine-tune and replicate a number of technologies in agriculture and allied sectors to improve the quality of life of rural men and women.

The tribal and the poor used to defecate in open air and the surroundings are kept unhealthy and filthy due to ignorance and poverty. As a result the people, especially the women and the children were subjected to a variety of diseases like diarrhea, anemia, dysentery, jaundice and diseases caused by worms. In 1988, RASTA introduced the unicef model twin–pit latrine for the first time in Wayanad district. Since then RASTA has been promoted 3240 latrines in the two districts.

Lack of availability of organic inputs was a problem for many of the farmers who like to move on to organic farming. Existing method of composting in those days was the deep pits and dumping dung and other waste into it and they used to take out the half decomposed items once in year. It was not a cost effective practice as availability of compost was very less in a year compared to the demand for application. In 1994, RASTA Introduced the NADEP model composting for the first time in Wayanad which was widely appreciated and adopted by farmers. 2100 compost tanks with total production capacity of 9000 tones were provided to farmers between 1994 and 2005.

Azolla is fresh water fern that its symbiotic association with Blue green algae can fix atmospheric nitrogen available to plants. Advantage of this plant could be effectively utilized by cultivating Azolla in an artificial system. @ 200gm/sqm per day, 730 metric tone of Azolla could be obtained from one hec area in a year. Azolla is rich in Protein, and other nutrients it can be utilized as a Cattlefeed, RASTA has familiarized this technology to 10000 farmers in the district and neighboring districts. This technology has been widely accepted by farming community.

Black pepper is one of the major earning crop of Wayanad and is widely cultivated by farmers. During early 90’s black pepper in the region has been widely affected with the quick wilt diseases. 60% of the crops destroyed by this disease. This has affected the income level of farmers and many of them couldn’t overcome the crisis. RASTA in association experts and scientists developed a package for controlling quick wilt within a period of 4 years between 2000 and 2004. Trichoderma harzianam mixed with Neemcake at the rate of 500 gm per plant is applied during the onset of monsoon. The technology has been handed over to 500 farmers in the district and is well adapted. 25 master farmers trained for the dissemination of technology.

Live stock is an integral part of Agriculture system in Wayanad. Since dung is available regularly at farmer level, the biogas systems could be effectively installed and managed by farmers for meeting the fuel needs. But farmers have not utilized this potential for many years as the technology was not available at village level. RASTA took the initiative to provide the facility at village level by training masons as well giving financial support for construction. Since 2001, 200 families installed and continuously using biogas systems for fuel requirements.

Insufficient organic inputs and lack of availability such inputs on time was one of the major problem faced by the farmers while shifting from chemical based agriculture to organic agriculture. To address these pressing problems RASTA introduced the vermi composting technology as early as in 1994. This technology has been widely adopted by the farmers. Till 2005 RASTA constructed 150 tanks across villages. The technology offered easy and quick access to quality organic manure at farm level.

Changes in cropping pattern and increasing in population has reduced the water resources in region. Rainwater harvesting was the only option in many hilly areas of the district were water scarcity is acute in summer months. RASTA in 2002 introduced the Ferro cement technology for constructing rainwater-harvesting systems in the district. The new method of construction cost only Rs.2 for a litter. The technology has been further modified to suite the needs of storing large volume in schools. A new method of construction adopted for building underground tanks of capacities 40000 to 50000 litters called “Brick lined Ferro cement”. The technology can also be used for constructing the storage part of batch fed biogas systems. Ten rainwater-harvesting systems installed in 10 schools in Wayanad with a total capacity of 450,000 litters of storage between 2003 and 2006.

Rice cultivation in the district has come down to 9000 hectares in 2005 from 40000 hectares in 1960. In a growing season Rice fields hold water for 90 days ! It means it support immense recharging of groundwater. But the changes in cropping practices have lead to water shortage in most of the areas during the last 5 years where the banana cultivation has manifold. The only option for reviving back the rice was to introduce and field test proper technologies that makes rice cultivation equally profitable as other crops. In 2003, RASTA tried out the experiments with farmers on System of Rice Intensification formerly developed in Madagascar. The results of these experiments were amazing that the yield improved by more than 80 % and the net income of the farmers doubled. The results shared with more than 3000 farmers in 2004 and the adoption rates are very high that within one year 100 farmers have successfully moved into this method of cultivation.

One of the major reasons for farmers shifting from Rice to Banana crops in wetlands was the higher cost of cultivation. To reduce the cost of cultivation by saving on labour, RASTA has introduced the seed drum that helped direct sowing by farmer them selves. The seed drum could be used after preparing the mainland to sow the seeds. By using this method, rice yield per hectare could be increased by 10 to 20%. The technology is currently being field tested in many paddy-growing areas in Wayanad and the results are encouraging.

Due to the continues expose to the smoke and heat that emerge out of the traditional Chullahs, rural women have been facing lot of health problems like Allergic bronchitis etc. The traditional Chullahs used to use a god volume of firewood. This increase the pressure on removal trees from natural habitats. RASTA introduced this Smokeless Chullah in Wayanad as early as in 1988. 5 women masons were trained on the construction of this Chullah. It has been installed in 10,000 rural houses in Wayanad district alone. This low cost technology is widely adopted in the district as well as in the neighboring district. The new technology of Chulah requires less volume of firewood; moreover it is free from smoke in side the kitchen.