AIM CASE 2: THE GALL-FLY ATTACK

Group Name: Dark Horse (Anju (P39008), Bansari Buha (P39014), Gautam Suneetkumar
(P39021), Nidhi Verma (P39031), Nikita Sarni (P39033), Sumit Prakash (P39055))

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

According to the Exhibit 1, it is visible that the village Rampur comprises of mainly small
farmers while only a few farmers have large landholding size. Similarly, the village has a
diversity among the members in terms of their caste which affects their decision making. There
is also influence of superstitious beliefs on the decision-making capability of the farmers. Also,
the farmers are dependent on only traditional means of cultivation and use of fertilizers and
chemicals are not that much acceptable in the community. The farmers are mistaken that the
spray of the chemical will lead to increased resistance among the pests which will cause
difficulty in case of later severe attacks of the pest. As previously they sprayed holy water on
paddy, which eventually helped them a little bit, so they thought that due to holy water pest
will wont attack their field again.

After making all the arrangements and bringing the equipment for spray Mr. Raghu was at a
loss since he could not understand the behaviour of the farmers. The problem has other severe
implications since if any of the farmers doesn’t use the pesticide, the pest was not going to be
controlled and it will affect the fields of all the villagers since it is contagious in nature.

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

How to inculcate usage for insecticides among farmers of Rampur village?

PROBABLE SOLUTION:

The villagers first raised the doubt that the insects develop resistance to insecticides after they
are exposed to insecticides for some time. This can be tackled by using a combination of
insecticides or alternate pesticides can be used every year. As resistance develops over a period
of time when the same insecticide is used for the treatment every time.
The second issue raised by the villagers was that the pest attack has happened due to displeasure
of Gods and sprinkling of holy water on the crops will help them. Some farmers even believed
that sprinkling of holy water was helping the pest attack reduce day by day. This is a serious
issue as this is showing lack of awareness and education among villagers, despite being one of
the most progressive villages in that district. It is also mentioned that till now they were very
much adaptable to new agricultural practices, improved variety of seeds, larger doses of
fertilizers etc. This shows that farmers wouldn’t be much resistant to awareness camps and
would benefit from that.
Big farmers can also provide credit to buy fertilizers to small farmers in case of some
disagreements from small farmer. This would be a win-win situation for both the parties as
spraying would only be effective for big farmers if entire paddy crop of the village is sprayed.
Also, small farmers would also get their crops covered.