SUBMISSION MADE TO THE HONOURABLE MINISTER OF STATE FOR ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS IN CONNECTION WITH THE NATIONAL CONSULTATION ON BRINJAL BEING HELD AT BANGALORE ON 6TH FEBRUARY 2010
By the
CENTRE FOR INDIAN KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS,
NO; 30, GANDHI MANDAPAM ROAD,
KOTTURPURAM, CHENNAI 600 085
Email: info@ciks.org
Web: www.ciks.org
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
As per the report of the Expert Committee it is seen clearly that the rationale for development of Bt-Brinjal is - damage by insect pest in the production of Brinjal due to pest that are commonly referred to as the - “Fruit and Shoot Borer”
APPROACH AND SOLUTIONS TESTED
In terms of the approach and solutions tested the report has reviewed the efficacy and agronomic performance of Bt-Brinjal comparing it with trials that have taken place with chemical pesticides and insecticides that are currently in use.
REVIEW OF THE STATE OF ART
In any endeavour for problem solving it is essential that the scientific team should be familiar with the state of the art in terms of the literature available on the subject, alternative solutions that have been proposed and tested and possible avenues for further research. It is our submission that in this endeavour the experts involved in the process have not given due consideration to indigenous technical knowledge that is available on this subject. We present below an overview of such literature which is relevant to the problem at hand.
INDIGENOUS TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE IN AGRICULTURE
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) launched a nation wide mission mode project on collection, documentation and validation of indigenous technical knowledge under the National Agriculture Technology Project (NATP) during the year 2000. As part of this process information on indigenous technical knowledge was collected from primary sources through voluntary disclosure and simultaneously collection and compilation of Indigenous Technical Knowledge (ITK) volume was made from available literature, books, journals and thesis (Enclosure I contains a description of five documents published as part of this effort in seven volumes)
OVERVIEW OF THE COMPILATION
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The compilation consisted of a total of five documents in seven volumes.
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The first two documents consisting of a total of four volumes listed 4879 indigenous practices
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The third and fourth documents describe efforts at validating and cross validating these practices.
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The fifth document is on geographic indicators
VALIDATION OF PRACTICES
Of the 4879 practices that were documented above a set of 111 indigenous technical knowledge were selected and subjected to experimental testing and validation in efforts that were conducted by several ICAR institutes and state agricultural departments and Universities across the country. These pertain to various topics such as pest control, crop protection, farm implements, weather forecasting etc. The results of these validation experiments were published as a separate volume (Document 3 listed in Enclosure I). This volume does not contain an overall analysis of the results - hence our Centre has compiled the results in a tabular format (Enclosure II). This shows that slightly more than 80% of these practices were valid and about 6% of the practices were partly valid. About 9% were concluded as being not valid and in addition there were a few cases where the scientists felt that the experiments are to be repeated and in a couple of cases the results were not declared. In summary there was overwhelming evidence in favour of the validity of these practices.
CROSS VALIDATION
Following the above, 38 out of the above 111 practices were further subjected to cross sectoral validation involving a few more research institutions for indepth analysis and a cross validation volume was also published in 2004 (Document 4 of Enclosure 1).
INDIGENOUS TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE FOR FRUIT AND SHOOT BORER OF BRINJAL
We carried out a search in these volumes for references relating to pest control and specifically those that pertain to control of fruit and shoot borer in Brinjal.
VALIDATION EFFORTS
As part of the validation effort the following two practices were identified with respect to controlling fruit and shoot borer in Brinjal (Described in Document 3 of Enclosure I). The full texts of the results are given as Enclosure III A and B and they are summarised below.
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Code no: 366 (Pages 175-177) - Use of Kochila (Strichnos nuxvomica) - mixed cowdung compost in brinjal for controlling fruit and shoot borer.
This was subjected to experimental testing by Dr. A. K. Das, Associate Professor, Department of Horticulture, Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar 751 003 (Orissa) in collaboration with a couple of other scientists in Krishi Vigyan Kendra. The conclusion reads as follows - “Use of kochila mixed cowdung compost reduces the incidence of fruit and shoot borer in brinjal up to considerably, which also matches with the claim of the discloser”
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Code no: 1417 (Pages 172-174) - Control of shoot and fruit borer by tobacco-soaked water with soap
This was subjected to experiment by Dr. S. Choubey, Sr. Assistant Professor, Department of Agronomy and Dr. R. P. Singh “Ratan’, Head, Department of Extension Education, Birsa Agricultural University, Kanke, Ranchi (Jharkhand) . The conclusion of the experiment reads as follows - “On the basis of the results of the field experiment, it may be concluded that for controlling shoot and fruit borer in brinjal, spraying of tobacco soaked water is equally effective as that of using endosulphan”.
FURTHER VERIFICATION THROUGH CROSS VALIDATION
These two experiments were subjected to additional verification through cross validation that has been described in document 5 of Enclosure I. The full texts of the results are given as Enclosure IV A and B and they are summarised below -
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Code 366 (Pages 59-62) - Use of Kochila (Strichnos nuxvomica) - mixed cowdung compost in brinjal for controlling fruit and shoot borer.
In this case the experimenters belong to not just Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology in Bhuvaneswar but also scientists in BCKV, Mohanpur, West Bengal and Head of the Central tuber Crops Research Insittute in the Regional Centre, Bhubneswar. The conclusion is cited below - ”Use of kochi la - mixed cowdung compost reduces the incidence of fruit and shoot borer in brinjal considerably, which also matches with the claim of the discloser. The mixture of tobacco-soaked water with soap was effective in controlling fruit and shoot borer but not as that of kochila-mixed cowdung compost.”
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Code: 1417 (Pages 69-72) - Control of shoot and fruit borer through use of tobacco (Nicotiana tobaccum) soaked water in brinjal (Solanum melongena)
In this case the experimenters were from the Departments of Agronomy and Extension Education in Birsa Agricultural University in Ranchi. Their conclusion wass - “Results of the experiments conducted for three years reveal that tobacco-soaked water is effective in controlling shoot and fruit borers of brinjal as claimed by the discloser”
In the preface that was written to the cross validation volume (Document 5) Dr. P. Das, Deputy Director General (Agriculture Extension) and Main leader of the program states that - “….It is firmly believed that the findings of the experiments would provide a solid base for future researchers, planners, policy makers as well as the farmers and other practitioners to look back at the wisdom of indigenous technical knowledge and incorporate the same in the research and development agenda.”
CONCLUSION
It is clear that Indigenous knowledge and resources are available for a satisfactory solution to address the problem of Fruit and Shoot Borer in Brinjal. These solutions have been validated and verified repeatedly by trials that have been carried out in the ICAR institutions including Agricultural Universities and Krishi Vigyan Kendras in a mission mode programme that has been launched by ICAR itself. Hence we feel that currently there is no justification whatsoever to consider for use technologies involving genetically modified crops with all their attendant dangers and risks. Indigenous Technical Knowledge also has several significant positives including - the technologies and their mode of use is familiar and within the reach of our farming community and the bioresources and material that are employed are locally available and low cost.
We may also add that there are a whole range of solutions and technologies drawn from indigenous knowledge that is now available from various sources including -
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Various volumes of Vrkshayurveda (Traditional Indian Plant Science) published in recent years by the Asian Agri History Foundation (www.agri-history.org)
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Various issues of the journal HONEY BEE that is being published for over the last fifteen years from the Centre for Management of Agriculture in the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in English as well as several other Indian languages (www.sristi.org)
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A large number of efforts undertaken by non government organisations across the country to document and field test these practices have also produced a significant body of credible experience and evidence.
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Our own centre also has a substantial body of literature and learning to share on this subject. Much of this work has also been supported by agencies of the government of India such as - the Department of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Rural Development. We would be willing to produce a detailed action plan for how this can be practically utilised to solve current day problems of agriculture.
ENCLOSURES
I Inventory of Indigenous Technical Knowledge in Agriculture - summary of five documents in seven volumes published by Publication and Information Directorate, ICAR, New Delhi
II Tabulation of results of Document III (Validation volume) in terms of efficacy grouped thematically
IIIA (From Validation volume) Code: 366 - Use of Kochila (Strichnos nuxvomica) - mixed cowdung compost in brinjal for controlling fruit and shoot borer.
IIIB (From Validation volume) Code no: 1417 - Control of shoot and fruit borer by tobacco-soaked water with soap
IVA (From Cross validation volume) Code 366 - Use of Kochila (Strichnos nuxvomica) - mixed cowdung compost in brinjal for controlling fruit and shoot borer.Code
IVB (From Cross validation volume) Code: 1417 - Control of shoot and fruit borer through use of tobacco (Nicotiana tobaccum) soaked water in brinjal (Solanum melongena)
LINKS FOR DOWNLOAD :
1. Our letter to the Hon. Minister
2. The text of the submission.
3. Enclosures. |
