It was realized some 12 years ago that, both on efficiency and ethical grounds, the prevalent modes of knowledge extraction from the people, and dissemination among them, were non-sustainable. Peoples' knowledge has been utilized in some cases for developing value-added products, for instance, in the herbal or plant-derived drug industry, or in improving crop productivity by using local land races. In either case, the beneficiaries of the value-added products were not the same as the providers of knowledge and the related resources - in this case biodiversity. In addition, there were large numbers of indigenous innovations, many of which were green such as herbal pesticides, veterinary medicine, farm implements, etc., which had never become the basis for modern technological development. While there were numerous public/private channels for diffusing innovations produced in the formal sector, similar channels for diffusion and value addition of informal innovations were not available. So much so that knowledge-rich economically-poor people could not benefit, particularly in marginal environments, from the formal technologies, nor could they learn from the informal innovations, due to lack of extensive knowledge networks. The local knowledge networks did exist within a community and were responsible for survival of disadvantaged people in regions where market and public systems were weak.

It was to overcome this gap that the Honey Bee Network was born eight years ago. It was started essentially to scout, experiment, improve if possible, and disseminate local innovations across language and cultural barriers.

The Honey Bee Network has been documenting grassroots innovations for sustainable natural resource management for the last eight years and has built a database of thousands of such innovations. These innovations include a wide range of herbal, artisanal and other innovations for non-chemical pest control, veterinary medicine, animal health and productivity, soil and water conservation, growth promoters, farm implements, low-energy-requiring three-wheel tractors, a tilting bullock/camel cart, etc.

However, the Honey Bee is essentially a text-based network. This severely limits access by illiterate farmers. And, as time has passed, we have realized that real time connectivity must be organized among the grassroots innovators if green technologies are to be given a real thrust.

One of the major impediments to the growth of grassroots innovations developed by farmers, artisans etc., has been found to be the lack of an appreciative but critical peer group. This happens through several socio-cultural processes, valid not just in developing countries: (a) Familiarity breeds contempt. People in the same village in which an innovator has developed a unique solution do not recognize and encourage the person till outsiders recognize the person. Sometimes the indifference may convert into much more aggressive contempt. (b) The innovations remain sub-optimal because feedback is not available in time or in sufficient detail. (c) Since there are only a few, or sometimes only one or two, innovators in a particular locality or village, the critical mass does not evolve, i.e. a peer group does not emerge locally. (d) Some of the extraordinary initiatives do not appear to be so to the person concerned till he/she is exposed to some other similarly unique ideas, etc. There may be many other factors that are responsible for lack of networking among grassroots innovators but it is obvious that lack of communication and awareness about each other is a major one.

Cross-cultural fertilization of ideas and initiatives is one of the fundamental tenets of the Honey Bee Network. While it is true that considerable cultural diversity exists within India, it is also true that homogenization of expectations and perception through popular media masks some of these differences. Previous research by us has shown that there are sometimes extremely innovative and comparable solutions generated in other continents for solving similar problem such as the same pest in the same crop. Rhinoceros beetle on Coconut is a problem in Columbia, Sri Lanka, Karnataka and Gujarat. In each case some common and many dissimilar innovations have been developed.

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