Rückblick

Für diesen letzten Eintrag wechsle ich nun die Sprache und blicke aus der Schweiz zurück auf meine Zeit in Indien. Ich werde viele Fragen beantworten über meine Erfahrungen.

1. Projektarbeit

Die Projektarbeit ist im grossen und ganzen gut gelaufen. Ich hatte besonders zu Beginn etwas Schwierigkeiten mich zu organisieren und musste erst die Arbeitsweise im Team kennen lernen. Rückblickend bin ich nicht so ganz zufrieden, ich hätte gerne mehr Motivation und Disziplin aufgebracht für die Datensammlung und mich bereits früher mit verschiedenen Fragestellungen auseinandersetzten sollen. Den gegebenen Bedingungen entsprechend ist es aber doch befriedigend, dass schlussendlich alles zu Ende geführt und abgeschlossen werden konnte.

Höhepunkte während meiner Praktikumszeit waren auf jeden Fall die Begegnungen mit den Bauern in den Dörfern, die voller Neugier und Motivation an meinen Befragungen teilnahmen, mich so grosszügig und warmherzig willkommen hiessen, mir ihre Kulturen zeigten und mich auf einen Chai einluden. Ja, während meiner ganzen Praktikumszeit gab es unzählige Highlights, immer bedingt durch die Hilfsbereitschaft und Gastfreundlichkeit der Inder.

Doch auch Tiefpunkte und schwierige Phasen gab es viele. Leider gab es Turbulenzen und Anspannungen in der Organisation. Ich bekam diese sehr stark zu spüren, obwohl es Bemühungen von der Organisations- Seite her gab, dass es Serainas und meine Arbeit nicht beeinflussen sollte. Trotzdem war es nicht zu verhindern. Unser Betreuer vor Ort und Leiter der Forschung musste die Organisation verlassen und wir waren sehr wohl von den neuen Umständen im Forschungsteam betroffen. Zur Bewältigung dieser schwierigen Situation konnte ich jedoch nichts beitragen. Die Organisation selbst hat dafür gesorgt, dass uns durch die anderen Mitarbeiter geholfen wurde. Durch die schwierigen Umstände haben sich alle doppelt angestrengt und meine Arbeit ging durch diese Bemühungen von allen Seiten plötzlich viel schneller voran als gedacht und die verlorene Zeit konnte wettgemacht werden!

Was ich sicher mitnehme ist, dass man um Hilfe einfach immer fragen muss, darf und soll! Obwohl man Praktikantin ist, von aussen kommt und vor allem zu Beginn nicht viel Ahnung hat, fragt einem niemand, ob man Hilfe braucht!

Ansonsten war es sehr wichtig und ausschlaggebend, dass Seraina ebenfalls in der selben Situation war und wir alle Erlebnisse und Eindrücke miteinander teilen konnten, uns gegenseitig wieder aufmuntern und motivieren konnten. Und auch fachlich austauschen! Das war sehr schwierig mit dem Team, welches leider wirklich schlecht English spricht.

2. IZA und Leben im Ausland

Natürlich stellt man sich alles etwas anders vor, vor der Abreise. Ich habe mir die Arbeit auf den Versuchsfeldern natürlich so vorgestellt, dass ich sehr viel mehr auf mich alleine gestellt bin und die Erhebungen stets selber durchführe, darüber also auch viel Wissen benötige. Dass ich die Erhebungen dann durchführe ohne detailliertes Wissen und häufig mit Hilfe der indischen Arbeiter, das kam dann einfach so und war zum Teil nicht anders möglich. Auch war mir anfangs nicht klar, wie ich vorgehen sollte für die Demonstration Trials zu Monitoring Tools. Ich habe die Fragestellung wohl verstanden, doch nicht, wie ich sie angehen sollte. Dass dieser Anfang so harzig sein würde, hätte ich nicht gedacht.

Betreffend Schädlingskontrolle hab ich rückblickend etwa das lernen können, was ich erwartet habe. Es ist toll, dass ich auch sonst viel über die Baumwollproduktion und den Forschungsstand in Indien erfahren durfte und auch in andere Themengebiete als die Schädlingskontrolle Einblick hatte. Die Züchtung und der Anbau ist ein vielschichtiges und komplexes Thema.

Meine Vorstellung von Entwicklungszusammenarbeit stimmte wirklich nicht ganz mit der Realität überein. Ich konnte mir auf jeden Fall nicht annähernd vorstellen, wie schwierig die Kommunikation sein kann und was für eine Hürde und Herausforderung die unterschiedliche Mentalität oftmals ist. Ich stellte mir jeweils sehr kompetente Vertreter der Entwicklungsländer von, die in Bezug auf Anforderungen und Zeitmanagement etwas westlich ticken. Dass dies wohl nur äusserst selten der Fall ist, wurde mir durch dieses Praktikum sehr klar. Da man häufig an der Front ist, also mit der Bevölkerung zu tun hat, so sind auch die lokalen Mitarbeiter meist noch sehr mit ihr verbunden und stammen aus ähnlichen gesellschaftlichen Schichten. Die Erwartungen dürfen daher nicht zu hoch gesteckt sein, wenn es um die Umsetzung und das Erreichen von Zielen geht.

Auch dass das Geld in der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit ein sehr heikles Thema ist und zum Teil auch die Korruption bis in die Entwicklungszusammenarbeit dringen kann, wurde mir bewusst. Hier stellt man sich auch meist vor, dass sich die lokalen Leute, die in der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit tätig sind, an erster Stelle für das allgemeine Wohl einsetzten. Dies entspricht leider auch nicht der Realität.

Ich kann mir trotzdem gut vorstellen, im Umfeld der internationalen Entwicklungsarbeit tätig zu sein, sofern die lokalen Leuten gefördert, eingesetzt und fachlich unterstützt werden. Ich erachte es nach wie vor als wichtig, in der heutigen globalen Welt auch das Wissen global auszutauschen. Natürlich habe ich viele Zweifel und fühlte mich selbst auch in Indien teilweise nicht in der richtigen Position, um den Bauern etwas beizubringen. Das war jedoch auch nicht mein Ziel, ich wollte ja eben ihre Meinung und Einstellung in Erfahrung bringen. Der "participatory technology development" Ansatz, denke ich, ist sinnvoll. Die grundlegendste und schwierigste Frage ist die, ob unser "Fortschritt" wirklich Fortschritt ist und auch für Entwicklungsländer das Ziel sein soll, oder nicht. Oder welche Entwicklung wünschenswert ist und welche nicht? Konkret fragte ich mich auch, ob zum Beispiel der Einsatz der unglaublich geschickt entwickelten, biologisch zugelassenen Pheromonfallen (aber im Labor hergestellt und mit viel Plastik drum) wirklich wünschenswert ist?

Zu solchen Fragen muss man sich erst selber positionieren, um dann in einem Entwicklungsprojekt mit Überzeugung mitarbeiten zu können.

3. Interkulturelle Kommunikation

Die Arbeit mit meinen indischen Arbeitskollegen lief gut. Besonders am Anfang machte es viel Spass, sie waren alle sehr gut gelaunt, klopften Witze und waren neugierig. Man fragte sich gegenseitig viele Dinge und hatte einander viel zu erzählen. Auch nach gewisser Zeit änderte sich an ihrer humorvollen Art nichts, doch es kehrte etwas Normalität in den Tagesablauf ein.

Oft merkte ich im Büro, dass ich langsam etwas in eine eigene Gedankenwelt versinke und von ihren Dialogen nichts mitbekam, da sie immer nur auf Nimari oder Hindi miteinander sprachen. Das war oftmals etwas schade, denn man war auch wirklich nicht über Dinge informiert, die einem etwas betroffen hätten. Plötzlich war ein Arbeitskollege den ganzen Rest des Tages nicht mehr da und man hätte doch eigentlich zusammen noch etwas besprechen wollen. Oder Dinge wurden durchgeführt, doch man hätte vielleicht auch noch gerne etwas dazu gesagt.
Auch an den wöchentlichen Montagssitzungen wurde stets wieder vom Englisch ins Hindi gewechselt, man musste sich wehren und nachfragen. Meist ging aber noch bei der Übersetzung sehr viel Information verloren. Doch wenn es ums Organisieren ging, waren alle immer unglaublich effizient, griffen zum Mobiltelefon und klärten ab, was machbar ist, was gerade läuft, was es zu erledigen gibt, wann etwas stattfinden soll usw. und so lief schlussendlich immer alles rund! ;)
Jeder Mitarbeiter tat auch seine Arbeit sehr pflichtbewusst und nach bestem Wissen und Gewissen. Und hilfsbereit waren alle sehr, wenn es Schwierigkeiten gab. Trotzdem ist es sehr wichtig, negative Gefühle, Wut und Frust nicht offen zu zeigen. Wenn etwas nicht so lief, wie ich es mir vorgestellt hatte, wenn niemand verstand, worum es mir ging oder wenn niemand fähig war, mir etwas zu erklären, dann brauchte es ganz schön viel Selbstbeherrschung, weiterhin mit ruhiger und sanfter Stimme und Geduld zu verhandeln und sprechen. Denn wenn man (insbesondere eine Frau) offen zeigt und sagt, dass es so nicht geht, wenn man die Nerven langsam verliert und ungeduldig wird, so kommt es erst recht zum kompletten Kommunikationsabbruch. Es führt nirgends hin. Also immer schön lächeln! =)

Die meisten waren ziemliche Schleckmäuler und liebten es, wenn jemand Süssigkeiten mitbrachte. Doch nicht alle. Einige waren sehr zurückhaltend. Erstaunlich fand ich auch, wie unglaublich stark der Hinduismus noch verankert war. Oftmals kam der eine oder andere Mitarbeiter etwas später, da er noch zu einem Tempel ging und eine Opfergabe machte. Oder er nahm einen Tag frei, da in seinem Dorf ein für diese Gemeinschaft wichtiges Festival stattfand. Sehr häufig waren auch Fastentage. Immer wieder einmal erfuhr man, dass jemand gerade fastete. Mindestens einen Tag im Monat fastet jeder praktizierender Hindu. Offenbar dürfen sie aber (zumindest in dieser Region) Früchte essen. Bananen halten sie also jeweils bei Kräften.
Wenn es um die Religion ging, merkte man oft, dass man besser nicht zu stark betont, wie diese in unserem Alltag oft keine Rolle mehr spielt. Das wird nicht verstanden und eher als negativ gewertet. Ich denke, sie möchten verhindern oder haben etwas Angst davor, dass wir sie in dieser Hinsicht beeinflussen. So erfuhr ich auch, dass wenn ich in den Ortschaften unterwegs war und mich zu Frauen gesellte, diese oft Abstand von mir nahmen. Offenbar sehen die Männer es nicht gerne, wenn indische Frauen sich mit Westlerinnen austauschen und es wird befürchtet, dass westliche Frauen den Inderinnen zu viele schlechte "Manieren" beibringen. Natürlich ist dies nicht (mehr) überall so. Viele Männer sind inzwischen sehr fortschrittlich!

Wirkliches Interesse, Anteilnahme und eine gewisse Anpassung wurde auf jeden Fall immer mit sehr viel Freude wahrgenommen und förderte die Offenheit!

Changes

It is a very difficult task to report on the changes which happened over the last 10 years throughout India, even if one focusses particularly on this region. From the many trips around the area I made own observations on newer developments and by asking the many questions that arose during the last three months I got some ideas of what must have changed and how it must have been some years ago. One thing which is striking are the roads. Very new highways connect Indore to its neighbouring cities and even out here the roads are good. Only about four years ago the way from Indore to Kasravad lead over a narrow, winding and dangerous road over the mountain range (not a high one, but still the slopes are steep) whereas now the highway is wide and the trucks can easily creep up the hills. So according to all the people I've asked, travelling from city to city became much much easier and faster. Nowadays very comfortable nightbuses are available for almost every route and public transport in general is very convenient, which I can say from my own very positive experiences. The people are extremely helpful and look after women (especially white women). The guy who collects the fare makes sure one is on the right bus, makes even sure one gets the best seats and many times people even want to offer you food. In the nightbuses too, the drivers would stop any time to make sure one could pee, though these stops were not only unproblematic. Still, they made us feel safe and comfortable. During daytime, more and more even Indian women travel alone for long distances. Slowly and in tiny steps I believe that women start to emancipate also on the countryside. 
In the research office I worked in a team of only men. In our trial fields however, women workers are employed (as many as men). The reason for this is the fact, that most of these young women will get married sooner or later and leave their job. Therefore the effort to instruct a young woman to do work in the office and get involved into the research activities is not worth it. I asked Lokendra from my team about the equality of opportunities for women and men. He said that nowadays girls have equal chances to get education and parents don't make a difference. But still, girls and women face many of difficulties. If they are able to work, even the journey from home to work and back home again in the evening is a challenge. Here, I never see a women ride a motorbike alone or with her children. In the cities, this is becoming a common thing. But out here, women only sit at the back of a motorbike with their husband or male relative. So the female workers always need to arrange a way of transportation and usually don't travel alone. Only a few days ago I captured them on a photo when they took the chance to get a ride home on a tractor which was passing. 

Dharmendra, another guy from the research team, pointed out that mobile phones were so much more expensive ten years ago and now, only one decade later almost everyone or at least every family owns one. Even in the tribal villages there are mobile phones. 
Of course, also motorbikes were rare ten years ago. The villages where therefore also not well accessible and villagers could not easily reach other places but mainly had to walk. Lokendra told me, that they did not have a two wheeler when he was a child but they used to have a horse. Horses were important in order to go and check and watch over the fields at night time. But nowadays one cannot see many horses around. 
And of course, farming became much more intensive. Many farmers now have irrigation facilities which made it possible to increase the yields enormously. So these farmers earn more and can also afford motorbikes, mobile phones and TVs.
Hence, many things became much easier for the majority of people around this area. But when it comes to women, it is a long way to go!

I think that in the next ten years rural India will develop extremely fast. Agriculture will further intensify and labour will be replaced by machines. This trend can already be witnessed now and labour is becoming much more expensive. I guess that the farming sector will shrink, small farmers might not be able to survive and young people will leave the villages for the cities. More people will have cars, even out here. But hopefully the women will be on the winner side. And hopefully the very precious knowledge about traditional farming and seed sovereignty will not be lost completely thanks to a trend towards sustainable development and the conservation of knowledge.

Project advances

Unfortunately I did not get around to writing an update on my project advances any earlier than now. And so my time at bioRe just came to an end and I will leave this wonderful place tomorrow! It's the moment of farewells and almost heartbreaking last words and wishes. 

The exchange with the farmers was surely one of the most precious things I experienced here. These two farmers are very committed and doing organic farming with all their heart and soul! They are both PTD farmers, taking part in the research activities of bioRe and currently also have trials on their fields on different cotton varieties or on manure application(rock phosphate). During the last weeks I also had a lot of other tasks to fulfill. I had to coordinate the data collection for the trials on different spraying intervals and the efficiency of botanicals. 

During the last month I went to many villages and met many bioRe farmers in order to get to know about their current spraying practice, about possible ways to improve it and identify which strategy they would be willing to adopt. Most of the organic farmers use very few inputs and even apply organic (botanical) pesticides only cautiously. However, a great number of pests occur on cotton and as their yields are anyhow already rather low, the cotton crop needs great attention and good protection against the pests. As farmers usually spray too late to prevent yield reductions by pests, it seems to be most promising if they could adopt an easy and practicable pest monitoring strategy by which they could observe what kind of pests are present and how high pest pressure is. The interviews with a great number of farmers should reveal how they themselves evaluate their situation and wether and how they could imagine to integrate the use of monitoring techniques into their pest management practices. The interviews with the farmers were all completed two weeks ago. 

The next step was to gather the extension officers in order to ask them about the feasibility to adopt pest monitoring techniques and the different possible options. This was done through a long and fruitful workshop for which I did agian a lot of literature research to improve it. The gathering of the results still needs to be done. I now have a lot of material, got many inputs and still have a heap of literature to put together and into a good shape in order to create a useful output!

For all these interviews and workshops I greatly relied on Lokendra, who translated all written (the questionnaries) and spoken (the answers, the presentations etc.) information! He did a temendously good job! And he exhibited a lot of patience (compared to myself). Yet, these translations were at the same time also the biggest challenge in this work. Even though I knew and I was sure that Lokendra explained everything very well, it was hard for me at times to let go. I sometimes feared that the farmers will not understand things the way I meant it. In Hindi/Nimari the way of saying things is so very different and a lot of idioms are used to explain. I therefore sometimes thought, that the farmers are losing track of what I really wanted to ask. Or that Lokendra influences them too much in their opinion by suggesting solutions or emphasizing what he himself thought was important.

But we managed well and achieved a lot within a short time, thanks to the unbelievable organisational skills of my Indian fellows! Always remember the following: "In India everything is possible" ;) Oh yes, it is!

We went for the last time to see the two farmers which have the trials on different spraying intervals in their fields. There, we again collected data and I got a feedback from both farmers on their experiences with these trials.

For my debriefing meeting we then invited many PTD farmers involved in the research activities of bioRe in one or the other way and I presented the preliminary results of the trials.

Another thing which required quite some time were the Leaflets. Claudia Utz compiled 10 leaflets on Self Made Products such as botanical pesticides, seed treatment methods and so on. These needed to be translated into Hindi and it was a challenging task to do for Lokendra. I more or less only took care of the layout work and compatibility problems. 

We demonstrated the finalized leaflets to the extension officers and the farmers and got their feedback and suggestions for improvement. They appreciated this work a lot and showed much gratitude. I hope, too, that the leaflets will be of great help to the farmers! 

If I was here for one more year I would very much focus on the training of the farmers. I don't believe that I am the right person to teach them anything, but I could identify that there is a great potential in the transfer of knowledge. As I emphasized on pest monitoring options and tools I would love to really teach farmers about the pests in the first place and then about how they could be monitored and managed. I would like to experience myself for an entire cotton season (May- Feb) which pests occure at which time, and how they could be monitored and controlled. Most importantly I identified that there is a great potential to increase yield and fibre quality by a late season pest control program. None of the farmers spray between September and February (of up to May) but there are numerous insects feeding on and damaging the cotton bolls and fibre. A lot of work could also be done to find out about economic threshold levels for the organic production. Or one could push the use of biocontrol products such as parasitic fungi which are available on the market against several pests. 

It is sure that there are still plenty of topics for future students to address.

More impressions of Madhya Pradesh's Agriculture

Cotton is one of the major crops grown in this region of Madhya Pradesh. In organic cotton production, the harvest is currently still going on, while most of the conventional cotton farmers have already uprooted their cotton plants in order to sow wheat (a short-season "Rabi crop", meaning spring crop, because it is sown in winter and harvested in spring.) 

After the cotton harvest is over, some farmers let the cattle into the fields to feed on the last edible parts that are left. Then the plants are uprooted and used as a firewood supply for the rainy season.

Other major crops which are currently grown are chickpeas, sugarcane and, as I mentioned before, wheat. The soybeans, which are also a major crop in this region, have been harvested in October. 

Here is a wheat field in the front, and a sugarcane field at the back.

Both chickpeas and wheat need irrigation, which here in the vicinity of the Narmada river is done by flooding the fields (see previous blog entry "Rural India"). Wheat needs around 6 irrigations, chickpeas need 2-3 floodings.
Here are some close-ups of the chickpeas. There are different varieties. I've come across two, a white- and a purple-flowering one:

The first lots of chickpeas are already on the market!

And one evening, we were introduced to the easiest way of preparing chickpeas! Make a little fire and lay the whole plants on it. Then pick the chickpea-pods which are roasted, peel them and enjoy! The taste is delicious!

Next to chickpea and soybean, the other pulses which are cultivated are mainly pigeon peas, mung beans, and green peas. This is a field of pigeon pea-shrubs. Pigeon peas are the main ingredient for the daily Dal (lentil-soup).

Of course there are also many vegetable crops such as Tomato, Chilli, Cucumber, Eggplant, Onion, Carrot etc.

The harvested red chillies are dried in the sun, which looks so stunningly beautiful and always catches ones eyes!

 Yet, tomato and chilli are very demanding crops and conventionally grown with the heavy use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

And there are lots of very tasty fruits, many of which I've never even heard of (this would fill a whole new blog entry ;))  Though most common are bananas and papaya. But also these two crops need very intensive irrigation..Here's a banana plantation:

And last but not least India is known for its many spices! Coriander or in Hindi dhaniya (Coriandrum sativum), Fennel or somph  (Foeniculum vulgare), Caraway or kaala jeera (Carum carvi) Cumin or jeera (Cuminum cyminum), Turmeric or haldii (Curcuma longa) and many more! But especially this plant is one of my favourites: Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum), in Hindi "Methi", is wonderful if prepared as a vegetable like spinach. But even more exclusive are the seeds used as a spice in various dishes to give them a special flavour. Methi is an important Ayurvedic medicinal plant.

The Rabari - Nomads from Rajasthan

Rural India

The beauty of barren landscapes, used for grazing or as a meagre wood source

...and the beauty of the colourful clothes within these rather arid areas

...the beauty of housing constructions from wood, cow dung, mud, bricks...

Ploughing by the power of oxen in the fields of the research centre

Sowing of chickpeas with oxen

The sowing device

In the region of the Narmada river, farmers have the privilege of having enough water to irrigate their fields by flooding them... On the arable land, the river water is used intensively (if not excessively and unsustainably...) and this cultivated, green land appears as a great contrast to the mostly arid conditions.
This is how a flooded field looks at the time of sowing...

...and this is the striking contrast between the barren and arable land

Project Work

The field of activity of my host organisation:

In this blog entry, i will first describe some of the current research activities of bioRe and the FiBL here in India. Most importantly, there is the Long Term Experiment, a trial where the different farming systems, namely the Organic, Biodynamic, Conventional and Bt-Conventional, are compared. This experiment has been set up in 2007 and will run for at least 10 years. Cotton, Soya and Wheat are the crops which are rotated. The objectives are to quantify

• how organic farming affects yield and yield stability (especially in seasons with extreme weather conditions such as drought or flood), product quality and product storability, compared to the conventional system
• how organic farming affects the stability of the agro-ecological system, with emphasis on soil fertility, beneficial organisms and biodiversity, compared to the conventional system
• natural and economic resource effectiveness (output/input relationships) of the organic system compared to the conventional system.

Other current research activities are for example the Green Cotton Project and the Participatory Cotton Cultivar Evaluation trial. These trials aim at developing locally adapted cultivars as well as maintaining and increasing genetic diversity, because even though the majority of the world's organic cotton is produced in India, it became extremely difficult to find suitable cultivars for the organic production. Hybrids (adapted to high input farming) and GM-cotton are presently dominating the Indian seed market (> 90%) and as hybrid seed needs to be purchased each season farmers have lost their traditional knowledge on seed production.

Moreover, there is a large risk of contamination with GM cotton and the loss of locally adapted genetic resources. So the FiBL, bioRe (Ltd.) and the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) Dharwad initiated a long term Cotton Breeding Project with the main aim to safeguard the heritage of Indian Desi cotton, maintain genetic diversity, avoid GM contamination and support the organic farmers with suitable cotton cultivars. 

My project

Now, this is not all. As I have mentioned in an earlier blog entry, the study I am conducting here is embedded in the Participatory Technology Development, where the needs of the organic farmers are identified and addressed. The current efforts of the PTD go on the one hand into the improvement of manure management options, and on the other hand into the development of suitable pest management strategies for organic farmers. And my project only represents a part of the work which is done in this latter. 

On the one hand I am continuing the research (started by Claudia) about spraying intervals with different self-made pest control products focussing on their impact on pest infestation and yield. These trials are still going on, the pest control products are sprayed at a regular basis, observations are done and the weight of the harvested cotton is recorded. 

Every other week I go to the trials in the farmers fields, bring them the self-made product they should spray in their/our on-farm trial and I do different kinds of observations on pest infestation.
Here is one of our organic farmers, Ambaram, on who's field we have a pest trial. On this photo he is spraying a self-made organic product we prepared for him, namely Top 10, in the plots where we prescribe him when and what to spray. These plots are then compared to the plots where he sprays in the way he usually does (or in his case, does not spray at all).

Top 10 is made of cow urine, cow dung and the extract from the fresh green leaves of the following 10 plants: The Neem tree (Azadirachta indiaca), the castor oil plant "Arandi" (Ricinus communis), the sugar-apple tree "Sitafall" (Annona squamosa), the five-leaved chaste tree "Nirgud" (Vitex negundo), the pink morning glory "Tamesar" (Ipomoea carnea), Nerium Oleander "Kaneer" (Nerium indicum), the Devil's Trumpet "Datura" (Datura festiosa), the Indian Beech "Karanj" (Millettia pinnata), the Papaya "Papita" (Carica papaya) and the Sodom Apple "Acao" (Calotropis procera). 
It is a self-made pesticide against sucking pests and caterpillars and is effective due to bitterness, bad odor and other properties coming from the plant’s alkaloids. This is just one of the various self-made products which are used in the pest trials.

On the other hand, I am focussing on options and tools for pest monitoring. This is an important aspect of a good pest management strategy. Because usually the organic farmers only spray when the pest problems become visible, which often means that the economic threshold levels are reached, possible ways to monitor and estimate the pest pressures need to be found.
Since now, I have done a lot of literature review on this, I have compiled and collected ideas and I have tried to find out about the availability of monitoring tools on the local market. Yet this last aspect is difficult to do for a foreigner in India. The information is only orally available and many phonecalls are necessary for what you have to know at least Hindi, if not even the local language (Nimadi, the "d" more sounding like an indian "r")... And even if you find somebody who offers you what you are looking for, then you are never sure if you couldn't get the same thing from somewhere else (maybe closer) for much cheaper.

The aim is then to assess the potential of these options and tools to monitor pest infestation firstly for on-station trials and secondly to assess the applicability for farmers. For this purpose I am setting up demonstration trials, I conduct workshops and most importantly I do surveys with bioRe staff, extension officers and farmers to find about their view on this subject.

Only just last Monday I had my fist workshop with the farmers advisory committee. I gave a small presentation, demonstrated some monitoring tools on the demonstration farm and had my questionnaires filled out by them.

I am happy to share some photos of that day:

The further steps that are planned are of course to install more demonstration trials and reach as many farmers as possible to demonstrate them to and to get their opinion on the possibility to use such monitoring options and tools. 

For the other trials the aim is to continue to collect data and to do a cost-benefit analysis to find out, if and which spraying interval/ treatment could be worth adopting in the future.