“Key Informant Survey” of Production, Value, Losses and ... - DfID

flour while he visited Vansar village during his visit at Anand.}
FENUGREEK He is growing this leafy vegetable mainly for selling. After 25-30 days of
germination, crop plants are uprooted, made into bunches and sent to the market of
Mahemadabad (a nearby small city) for sale.
FENUGREEK PESTS He said there is no pest problem in this crop.
#A004 DATE:3/10/03 TEAM: RCJ/DBS Village Parsotaj, Dist. Kheda - small gourd village.
He is a small farmer having 1.5ha of land out of which 0.5ha is occupied by small
gourd, while in the rest of the land he grows other crops as mentioned above. He has
15 family members and he has to feed all from this land. So some family members are
doing labour work and earning the money and meet their requirement.
CROPS He is growing small gourd, Bajra, Fenugreek, Wheat, Cauliflower.
SMALL GOURD He said, he is growing local variety of small gourd since 15-20 years.
Upon asking "why you are growing this crop?" he said this crop is giving good
remuneration round the year and all people are growing, so I have adopted it. He also
said this crop is good in small land holding. He planted the crop at a distance of
1.5m between two rows and 0.5m between two plants.
SMALL GOURD PESTS He said this crop is infested by fruit fly, fruit borer, melon
weevil, aphids and termite. He is facing the termite problem every year.
FRUIT FLY He is facing the problem of this pest since 10 years and before that,
problem was less as per his views. He said due to infestation of this pest, there is
reduction of yield and it cause economical losses. He said that due to attack of
fruit fly, fruit get rotted and "Kida" (maggots) are moving inside. As per his
experience with this crop, he said that the infestation is ranging from 5 to 50% and
peak infestation is observed during March-April. He said depending upon the year, the
infestation activity goes up and down.
FRUIT FLY CONTROL He knows two methods for fruit fly control
FRUIT FLY CONTROL: SPRAY (i) Spraying of insecticides. He sprayed his crop with Nuvan
(dichlorvos) at peak activity of fruit fly. He selected the insecticide as suggested
by shop keeper/insecticide dealer.
FRUIT FLY CONTROL: TRAPS (ii) Sex pheromone traps He used fruit fly traps last year.
He used methyl eugenol and Nuvan (dichlorvos) purchased from shop keeper at
Mahemadabad (Dist. Kheda), soaked the cotton plug in the mixture and placed inside
the plastic bottle. He has not followed exact measurement. He said that cotton should
be completely wet, that much quantity he used. He knows this practice since 10 years.
FRUIT BORER He said that this is also a next serious pest after fruit fly and attack
during monsoon period. He said that the larva feeds on fruits as well as leaves.
According to him, it can cause damage up to 25-30% during August-September. However,
he has not sprayed any insecticide for the control of this pest and left it to
nature/God as such. When asked the reason "why you have not sprayed insecticides?" he
said that all the farmers says that this pest is not controlled by any insecticide
and there is no meaning of spraying insecticide.
MELON WEEVIL This is new pest observed since 2 years in this area as reported by him.
Its population is negligible, hence he is not spraying any insecticide to control
this pest. {We have collected adults and tried to identify based on available
published literature. It seems to be Acythopeus curvirostris sp. citrulli. This is
the first record of this pest in Gujarat.} This pest is locally called as "Chanchvu".
It bores into fruits with its beak. It makes about 50-60 punctures on fruit. It also
IMFFI Semi-Structured Interview Survey - 8 of 66