Amai Mahalinga Naik (born 1945) is an innovative farmer from Adyanadka village in Dakshina Kannada district in the Indian State of Karnataka who single-handedly developed an organic agricultural farm with a zero-energy micro-irrigation system.
In the year 2022, Govt of India honoured Amai Mahalinga Naik by conferring the Padma Shri award for his contributions in the category referred to as "other fields".
[3] Amai Mahalinga Naik born in a village in Dakshina Kannada district has had no formal education and according to some reports, he is illiterate.
Observing his sincerity, a landloard Amai Mahabala Bhat donated two acres of barren land on the top of a hill to Naik in 1978.
It was Shree Padre, editor of the agricultural magazine Adike Pathrike, who made Naik's story public.