Rachel Carson on her acclaimed book raised a fundamental question, “How can intelligent beings seek to control a few unwanted species by a method that contaminates the entire environment and brings the threat of disease and death even to our own kind?” A lot has changed since her time, but, have they really? In our national case, official targets include attaining food self-sufficiency without a clear mention of how agro-biodiversity integrates in such schemes. Haphazard use of imported varieties, pesticide use, broad spectrum pesticides etc. are prevalent throughout the country. There are very few cases, like the one in vegetable producing farmers from Charaudi which this essay will discuss about, where farmers themselves have taken on the onus to adopt a sustainable production system, with troubling results sadly.
Agricultural biodiversity is an umbrella term which encompasses all biological diversity pertaining to food and agriculture ecosystems viz. plants, animals, micro-organisms. Four dimensions of agricultural biodiversity have been identified by CBD, namely, genetic resources for food and agriculture, components of biodiversity that support ecosystem services, abiotic factors and socio-economic and cultural dimension.
The main challenge in agricultural biodiversity is to sustain its ecosystem services, which it requires and provides, while mitigating the negative impacts of human agricultural interventions on biodiversity. This challenge becomes much nuanced when one factors in demography, economy, climate change, poverty, and land-use.
One of the four suggestions put forward by CBD programme of work on agricultural biodiversity (decision V/5, annex) states that assessing the status and trends of the world’s agricultural biodiversity, the underlying causes of change, and knowledge of management practices is a realistic solution.
My research site, Charaudi, Dhading district which is a commercial hub for vegetable production accounting for bulk of vegetables in market like Kalimati and Pokhara, has been at a back drop of concerns regarding pesticide use. Farmers here identified the cause as excessive use of pesticides and to counter that adopted a policy to use “herbera”- a natural insect repellent which leaves no residue. This expensive anti-dote was adopted with half subsidy from Benighat Rorang rural municipality.
Figure 1 Field observation for disease diagnosis and sample collection
Zone implementation unit (Vegetable-Zone, Dhading), PMAMP where I am working as a research intern ventured to assess perception of people regarding herbera and its efficacy in the field. Sixty households which had only used herbera and avoided use of any other pesticides were visited where semi-structured interview followed by disease/pest field observation, samples of diseases/damage were collected and taken to laboratory for diagnosis.
In spite of the clear label, almost all of the farmers didn’t know that “herbera” was only an insect repellent and a growth promoter that could not counter viral, fungal and bacterial diseases. It could minimize the vectors-insects which transport these diseases but clearly not a complete management solution. Field inspection showed incidence of soil borne fungus in brinjal, viral diseases like mosaic in cucumber, mites in capsicum, powdery and downy mildew in cucurbits.
Figure 2 Data Collection regarding pesticide use, herbera use and household survey
The cooperatives where all these farmers sell their products had whipped them to use this product and the farmers abided then, but now, amidst farmers, a lot of discontent voices could be heard . Few of our respondent even mentioned that his neighbors had started spraying other pesticides at night and he might do the same if the diseases aggravate. When the leaders of the cooperatives were asked for their reasons for herbera adoption and promotion, it was clear that it was driven partly by the negative feedback from the market, partly by their own firsthand experience of seeing effects of pesticides on crops and soil and predominantly by reminiscence of the by gone days when farming without all these chemicals brought them not just income but fulfillment and joy.
This case shows us that simply a desire to make vegetable production sustainable and maintain agro-biodiversity is not enough. Multi-stake holder engagement with direct participation of local governing body (rural municipality), local community organization, farmers, bio products manufacturer couldn’t tackle the situation rather further hindered future adoption of such technology.
Clearly, a smaller trial in a field with several varied treatments like herbera alone, combinations of different doses of other pesticides along with herbera had to be conducted before randomly whipping farmers to adopt a certain green technology. The efforts to understand farmers’ perceptions and wishes had not been definitively studied. Neither was the forward linkage for marketing of their pesticide-less product constructed, meaning they would not be priced differently at all.
Research based decisions, design thinking and human centered solutions could very well hold the key to tackling complex challenges like increasing food production while maintain agro-biodiversity. The fear is, unplanned interventions like these may have caused irreversible damage.
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