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

if no disease. About 3-4 months.
GOURDS AND FRUIT FLIES Are they the same or different with regard to the fruit fly?
Smooth gourd and small gourd suffer from the fly more than bitter gourd.
VEGETABLES AND PESTS They grew mostly cereals until 15 years ago. Any other
vegetables, or only these? He tried tomato - 3-4 years. Not succeeded. Heliothis.
Brinjal - the problem was borer.
CAULIFLOWER He will grow cauliflower soon - he's not sure, maybe after the BG or
possibly in a separate field. Also a good crop, but with a less-than-ideal price
situation.
GOURDS & FRUIT FLIES Which crop suffers worst from pests? Worst in BG is fruit fly.
Worst in small gourd is fruit fly. Worst in smooth g is leaf curl, fruit fly second.
Small gourd is grown from cutting, the others from seed.
VILLAGE COOPERATION How do you get villagers to cooperate? We'ld like to have form a
cooperative society. There is now no cooperative society. Why? Not possible like in
milk. Have problems with cooperation. Would do applications in a coordinated way,
coordinate but not cooperatively. A problem is party politics. The village hucchi is
his cousin, but he is BJP, the huchhi Congress. So they hate each other. He is also
shatriya. Has the village a "head man"? Yes - the tsirpanch - elected by the village
council. He is BJP but not necessarily political. The village council is the ranchat.
Tsirpanch not necessarily political - sometimes independent. Elected by village
council, which is elected by villagers. If the tsirpanch gave some directive and can
persuade people, most farmers would do it, but not all. Some are hucchis, some too
poor to afford. A lot will depend on the quality of the tsirpanch.
#A014 DATE 15/5/5 TEAM JMS/RCJ/DBS. {Evaluation visit to the wide-area BAT village.
Most of the day is taken in presentations, speeches and a rather good lunch, so less
discussion with farmers takes place than JS would have liked. Overall the view is
that the wide-area application was most successful, and the infestation was zero by
the end of the season. The huchhi has kept his obstinate stand, and would still be
unwilling to participate in cooperative control were it to be tried again. There is
some laughter at his attitude. There is no indication that village-level wide-area
cooperative control may be taken up and sustainable. JS suspects that the fact that
the area is almost all under gourds, which is due to a happy confluence of factors -
technology, irrigation and the road - creates a homogeneity of cultivation practice
which is purely accidental and is not reflected in any real social cohesion. Wide-are
management would need to be organised by the sirpanch, but he gives the impression of
having enough on his plate to maintain his authority, in the light of tensions within
the village, to attempt to spend political capital on such a project. The sirpanch
sees social pest management in terms of risk, not of return - his losses from failure
would outweigh his perceived returns to success.}
@~G - GANDHEVI
#G001 DATE:17/09/03 TEAM: ZPP/VSJ Farmer with his brother. He has a total 6 ha. land
they are 8 family members. That much farm produce is not sufficient to fulfil all
requirements. His two brothers are working in UK & USA.
CROPS They are growing chiku, sugarcane, mango & bitter gourd.
CHIKU (also sapota or milk tree) He has a 2.5ha orchard of chiku growing since 1968.
He planted Kalipatti variety graft at a distance of 10-x 10-m with general cultural
practices. They thought chiku gave fruits throughout the year and continuous income.
Now chiku gives good results, steady income throughout the year, and meets the family
expenses. If more fruit are produced we get low price and vice versa. There is no
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