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

including semilooper because fruit fly does not cause much damage to the crop. For
the first time used this pesticide, farmer thought about its extent of control. In
farmer's view, it performed not so well but controlled to some extent. Farmer does
not know much about the other possible fly control methods.
#B009 DATE: 6/11/2003 TEAM: HSS/ASK. Village Sindhiba. 40 years old. The total farm
area is about of 2.5 acres. The farm feeds for eight family members. The farm harvest
fed the family for about six months and besides thus the farmer was doing the labour
works in his villages in Govt. E.A.A. & other works.
CROPS Orange, Lemon, Turmeric, Pineapple, Paddy. Of his 2.5 acres area orange,
pineapple & turmeric crops were cultivated in 2 acre area & paddy, ragi crops are
grown in rest half acre area. Pineapple & turmeric crops are intercropped with orange
trees & paddy & ragi were grows in lowland & upland respectively farmer also
practised the shifting cultivation for millet & Kandoola pulse. Most important crop:
Orange, Pineapple, Turmeric. Farmer was growing mostly orange, pineapple & turmeric
because of land topography & hilly areas. The crops were raised without use of any
fertilizer pesticides & artificial irrigation & marketing of the following above
mentioned crops were very easy and farmer gets good return from the crop. Pineapple &
turmeric crops are inter cropped with the orange crops.
CROP: ORANGE Farmer has been growing since last 15 years. Farmer had started to grow
this crop by taking the seedlings of orange from the Horticulture dept. of Orissa
Government. He got the seedlings from the Govt. scheme (under Integrated tribal
development agency) by an advice of the district Horticulture Department people.
Farmer thought that whether this crop sustained or not in this hilly areas with high
altitude & rocky soil. Also simultaneously he thought about the success of the crop
in future 7 particularly about the fruit fly matter and sweetness taste. This crop
performed very well and fruiting started after five years of planting and now on an
average 100 fruits were obtained from each plant.
ORANGE ADVANTAGES Relative to the other crops grown round there, its great advantages
is that, this crops requires much less care & farmer does not used any type of
fertilizer & pesticides to the crops. By natural means and monsoon rains the fruiting
was happened in the trees. Second advantage is that the marketability of the fruits
were very easy because the traders from the nearby areas like Berhampur, Cuttack &
Bhubaneswar were came to their villages and products were purchased from their farm
itself with a price of Rs.2/ per orange. Also the OMFED, Govt. of Orissa also
purchased from their farm itself for squash purposes.
ORANGE DISADVANTAGES The main problems is now occurring as prematurely fruit drop off
from the plants & immediately rotten the fruits on the soil surface itself. Sometimes
matured & ripened fruits were drop off from the plants & rotten itself ground level.
This problem was noticed since last two years & during this current year, this
problem was noticed in very acute manner ie, fruits were even dropped from the trees
up to 50 to 75 %.
ORANGE PESTS I) Fruit sucking moth. II) Bark eating caterpillar. Most serious pest is
fruit sucking moth.
FRUIT SUCKING MOTH This pest is becoming a problem to the orange crop since last year
but it causes much damage to the fruits during this current year. During fruiting
stage, the fruits were dropped off from the plants itself prematurely & also matured
fruits & rotten the fruits itself. The farmer told us that he observed one radish
brown colour flies were sits on the outer surface of the fruits & that particular
fruits were failed down after some days & afterward rotten starts. He also noticed
one dark coloured patches on the fruits outer surface. Relative to the other pests
round there, it was particularly bad because of its nature of damage i.e. fruits were
fall off from the plants & rotten before maturity stage for which farmer faces huge
IMFFI Semi-Structured Interview Survey - 49 of 66