“Farmer brethren! Insects whether
herbivores or carnivores are not farmers’ enemies. Real enemies of the farmers
are the pesticides. Due to lack of awareness about the insects, farmers start
using pesticides when they sight insects, but it is not required. So if you
know about these insects you can save yourself a large sum every year,” Savita
informed the farmers during a session of insect school held upon a cotton
field.
Every week Savita, along with her
associate Manisha, runs a special field class. Both women and men from the
village participate in the class which seeks to educate farmers about insects
so they may stop using pesticides in their fields.
When Gaon Connection team reached
Lalitkheravillage of Haryana’s Jeenddistrict, it found more than 50 men-women
engaged in counting the insects in the cotton field. A weekly insect school
takes place here since 2012.
The woman attendees of the insect
school are not anyone’s fools. Besides being well versed with their farming
input costs, income and pesticides etc, they are also able to recognize each and
every type of insect and its effects.
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“So far we have identified 43
herbivore and 162 carnivore insects. To ease their recognition, we have divided
them into many categories like big ones as major insects and smaller ones as subedar major. Insects do not come to the fields on their own but are attracted
to the blooms or the smell that the plants emanate. Carnivores are about the
triple in number than the herbivore insects,” said Manisha showing a
grasshopper perched on a cotton leaves.
Ranveer Singh Mallik who is associated
with the Insect Literacy Mission explains Gaon Connection the link between a
plant, insect and pesticide.”Whichever may be the insect, whether it feeds on
the leaves or nectar, it is vital for the plants. Insects become a threat only
when they exceed a certain level (ATL) in their population. This level is
achieved only when a farmer sprinkles his fields.”
Many
districts of Haryana like Jeend, Hissar, Kaithal and Karnal cultivate cotton.
In 2001 cotton crop was viciously attacked by American caterpillar to offset
which the farmers did 30-35 sprays in a year but to no avail. During this time
Haryana’s ADO Dr Surendra Dalal did research on insects and established that
insects are not our crops’ enemies.
Ranveer said: “Dr Dalal had understood
that the insects are not farmers’ enemies, but the farmers were not ready to
accept so he began his mission to educate farmers in their own fields.”
Savita and Manisha have now become
insect trainers (insect commandos) and daily classes run in several villages
like Lalitkhera. As per Ranveer, thousands of farmers in Jeend have given up
using pesticides in their cotton fields.
Savita (left) and Manisha (right) run daily classes in several villages to educate farmers about insects.
Women play a major role in Haryana’s
agriculture and animal husbandry so in insect school too they form a majority.
Manisha said: “When in the beginning pesticide use was being curtailed women resisted saying that it would affect the crop production. Since women work more
in cotton fields, Dr Dalal involved them in the mission wherein they were
informed that the use of pesticides was neither good for their crops nor men.
Now we have several thousand women supporting us.”
As per people associated with the Insect
Literacy Mission ever since the farmers have stopped using pesticides their
crop production has increased and they end up saving Rs 6,000-7,000 monthly.
Manisha tells about the economic
reason behind sparing the insects. “A farmer used to spray his cotton crop
numerous times a year which was not really required. The farmers have stopped
the use of pesticide to save Rs 6,000-7,000 thousand besides saving the
environment, land and water from degradation.” Manisha added, “It is not that
the pesticide gets sprayed automatically, our men spraying them can be
affected, several have already fallen ill due to these chemicals. Many ailments
occur due to these so what is the point of using them?
The farmers attending the insect
school not only have distanced themselves from the pesticides but also have
begun using balanced fertilizers. Manisha said, “Previously we used a sack of
urea per acre of cotton field thereafter 3-4 sacks in succession. Now we make a
solution of it. For the solution we add a two-and-a-half kilo of urea, two-and-a-half
kilo DAP and half kilo zinc to 100 litre water. This solution is more effective
than 50 kg urea, it improves the crop and saves us money on fertilizers.
In the beginning women resisted use of pesticide saying it would affect the crop production.
Importance of insects
Woman Insect Commando (master trainer)
Savita explains the importance of insects by giving examples.
One might have noticed that cotton has
two types of flowers—pink and white while wheat has one type. These colours are
to attract various insects. Insects come and sit upon their flowers eating them
which helps the plants in reproduction and so is cotton produced.
Second example: Grasshopper. This
insect is green in colour and eats the central part of the leaf. It may seem
that it is destroying the leaf but in fact, is beneficial. Sunrays filter through
these holes to the bottommost leaves and so the grasshopper is vital for us.
How do carnivore
insects help to control herbivore insects?
Green-coloured insect chrysopa has net-like wings. It feeds upon leaves. Adult chrysopa is a herbivore, but its
offsprings are carnivores. These offsprings feed upon the eggs of other insects
like whitefly, green caterpillar etc. similarly spiders stun other insects and
feed off them.
Millibug
Millibug has a sac beneath its back
protecting its 250-300 eggs. When we spray pesticides, we kill only the adult
insect while the eggs remain unaffected in the sac and within 3-4 days one bug
is able to produce more than 300 insects. We kill them and again they’d sprout.
If we do not put any pesticide, these will perish on their own because the same
sac carries four parasites which feed upon them.
