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

it. When JS mimes a jumping FF maggot with his hand, the first farmer and the
generality of the company laugh with apparent recognition - this aspect is apparently
familiar.
BITTER GOURD HISTORY 2 Farmer 2 says FF got worse about 5 years ago. Why? This was
when he started growing BG. What did he grow before BG? Nothing in that plot. So why
BG? He saw how others were making money from BG. BG always makes money, even when
pests attack.
BITTER GOURD CONSUMPTION AT HOME Do the BG growers eat large amounts of BG? Not
really, once a week - it's a vegetable like any other. But they do store it from the
season, sliced and dried. It's eaten once a week both fresh and dry. Is any use made
of its alleged medical properties? Not for them. {Prescribed in Ayurvedic medicine
for diabetes, but it's the leaf, not the fruit.} Yes, says someone else. Sabji (Sag)
is made from tender leaves and used against diabetes. The oldest man nods vigorously.
Tender leaves are dried, ground to powder and kept in a jar. Then eaten for breakfast
as a general tonic. The old man says he likes the leaves and would eat them anyway.
Do they taste bitter? Yes. Does everybody eat them? Yes.
HISTORY OF PESTICIDES For how long have sprays been used? For ever, as far as these
relatively young farmers are concerned - they can't remember a time without sprays.
But earlier on the spray frequency was less. Now it's increasing day-by-day. It was
monthly, now weekly. How long ago was it monthly? 5 years. So pest infestation has
gone up. Why? Because the area under BG has increased a lot {quite a sophisticated
answer without any prompting from us}. The insecticide most used is dimethoate. Less
good than it was. Not banned - it was and still is common. Methomil has been banned.
A shame. "The strongest pesticide." Most commonly used is a mix of fungicide
(Barestin {?}), insecticide (endosulfan/thiodan, or rogor or dimethoate) and plant
manure. Dimethoate is getting worse. Is endosulfan also getting worse? No -
dimethoate was much the best, but has now got worse and is on a par with endosulfan.
PEST CONTROL ADVICE Insecticide comes from the city (Bhubaneswar). Advice comes from
the shopkeeper. They take in BG to sell, say "What is this?" and follow the advice.
FRESH SEED AND DISEASES What will reduce pest infestation? Fresh seed: they now
reseed their own seed and think this is tired and so pests get worse, because tired
seed allows pest to develop resistance to pesticide. (On discussing more closely:-)
mosaic virus a problem on the increase round here, and this is where tired seed
helps. Leaf curl is rampant and so they spray pesticide like anything.
VILLAGE COMPETITION This village gets BG yields much bigger than the next village. 50
quintals/day. The other village takes less care. We learnt the technology from the
next village but now we are better than them. JS: Oh ho - we'll ask them and see if
they agree. "Oh they will."
PRIORITIES Interested in two problems - leaf curl and FF.
#B002 DATE:04/03 TEAM:HSS/ASK. Village Pitapalli. The total farm area is around 8
acres. The farm has to feed six family members. For 12 months in a year, farm harvest
feeds the family, as the family does not works outside farm.
CROPS On his 8 acres he grows Bitter gourd crop (1 acre), Cucumber crop (0.5 acre),
Ridge gourd crop (0.7 acre) and Paddy (6.0 acre)
CULTIVATION HISTORY His family has been cultivating Paddy (100 years), Bitter gourd
(30 years), Cucumber (10 years) and Ridge gourd (7 years).
CHOICE OF BITTER GOURD VARIETIES He goes for the cultivation of local variety of
bitter gourd, which yields low but good market price and marketing network.
IMFFI Semi-Structured Interview Survey - 41 of 66