Speaker: Dr. A Daniel Anand Raj, CCD, Madurai
Translator: Ningappa Kakol
 According to Dr. Daniel, speaking of pests and diseases was not very appropriate in organic farming. Instead he preferred to enable participants to understand the nature of energy flows and nutrient cycles on earth. The facilitator took all participants outdoors to see how plants (producers) grow, to see first order consumers (herbivores) which feed on plants – usually our crops and other higher order consumers that feed on consumers, decomposers that reduce organic matter to humus and minerals. The facilitator explained how removing any one organism from the food chain could lead to its collapse and hence greater pest and disease problems for farmers. He explained that the objective of a good organic farmer was to restore a balance in the ecosystem so that disease risks are minimised while not relying on expensive and poisonous pesticides and weedicides in farming. According to research, 99% of pesticides miss the target insect – and result in more resistant pests. The facilitator demonstrated this through a game where participants pretended to be paddy stem borers, and how the resistant individuals led to greater disease problems with every spraying.
Responding to a participant’s question about “what then should I spray?”, the facilitator suggested that if the spraying became habit in farmers, it is better to simply spray water on plants (which does disturb pests) or to spray cow urine. The key steps organic farmers need to take are:
1. Stop spraying pesticides completely,
2. Create scope for biodiversity in farms and thus increase natural enemies to common pests,
3. Tolerate small levels of pest attacks as usually plants have coping ability (e.g. at tillering stage even with 75% of leaf loss paddy plants
can recover),
4. Do not spray even if your neighbour does – insects will not flock to your land because your neighbour sprays – if they come in the
predators on your land will eat them up,
5. Make soil liveable - better soil structure and nutrient management will lead to healthier plants which can resist pests and diseases and
cope well. The facilitator was also against the use of biological pest repellents as he felt that they too used the same logic as
conventional chemical based farming.The facilitator took the example of paddy cultivation practices (wetland paddy) that lead to better
pest and disease management, and explained how early spraying was one of the worst steps a farmer could take as it mostly killed
neutral or beneficial insects only. He explained management practices for blast in paddy, stem borers in paddy, leaf spot in groundnut,
viral diseases in banana. The participants also viewed a slide show to identify common beneficial organisms (fungi, insects), insects and
their eggs, larval and adult forms and how they help in controlling pests.
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