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Honey bee publish details |
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Gitta Roeth |
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Indigenous Pest Management Across South and North: Parellels Between Dominican and other cultures(part two) |
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Naturaleza, an NGO in the mountain area of Santiago, DR, distributes barrels to peasant families that want to follow newly introduced non-chemical pest management practices. The distribution of barrels is a kind of incentive to motivate farmers to adopt the new technology.
It is interesting to note that in the immediate surroundings of the CREAR-project, (Centro Regional de Estudios Alternativas Rurales), where most of the herbal-pesticides have been developed, the adoption rate amongst farmers is comparably low. CREAR is an educational centre. It runs courses for regular students, technical staff of official and private rural extension organizations and farmers. It has adequate international funds. After finishing high school most of the students in DR usually leave the remote areas to continue studies or to search for a lucrative job in urban centres.
Comparing indigenous pest management practices of different cultures
The comparison of specific Dominican Indigenous Knowledge (IK) with that of other cultures sometimes reveals amazing parallels. Sharaby (1988) and Parrish (1994) mentioned different practices of traditional storage pest management in Egypt. Sharaby investigated the effects of guava (Psidium guajava) and eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) leaf powders on rice weevil (Sitophilus oryzae) and granary weevil (Sitophilus granarius). Guava leaf powder had a rather toxic effect on these two pests, whereas eucalyptus had a stronger repellent effect. Parrish (1994) describes the fumigation of granary rooms with capsicum (Capsicum annuum) together with other components (kerosene, wood, rice straw or stalks) which are burnt inside prior to grain storage. Capsicum is also used in combination with ash and lime.
All these plant species exist in the DR as well. Thus, the same practices may be adopted locally, as the main problem pests are also similar to the Sitophilus oryzae: S. zeamays (in maize) and Acantho-scelides obtectus (in beans). Dominican farmers instead treat stored grain with grated wood of pine tree (Pinus occidentalis, -caribeae) or grated curd soap with pine essence. Earlier, they also sprinkled harvested pulses with the juice of bitter orange (Citrus aurantium) while drying them in the sun.
The most famous example of herbal pesticide is Azadirachta indica (Neem). The traditional use of leaves and seeds as biopesticides in crops and storage of seeds originally came from India, but in the last 20 years this specific IK spread to many other countries in Africa, Latin America and now even to the US and Europe. Today Neem is an essential component in many projects promoting sustainable agriculture and biological or integrated pest management.
Jain and Lata (1996) have shown a number of parallels in medicinal plant use in India and Brazil. A large number of practices described in this article are also used in the DR, but some of them are used for different purposes, while the potential of others has not been investigated yet. Global exchange of knowledge and mutual learning among farmers, as attempted by Honey Bee network, can amplify the knowledge base of each culture. Comparable exchanges should also be promoted in the case of herbal pest management. (Honey Bee and SRISTI have been pursuing research on known and unknown uses of various plants for the last eight years. NAPRALERT Database provides good references to known
uses. :Ed).
German indigenous knowledge
European IK can also be considered for this purpose. In German biological or ecological agriculture, there are at least 20 different plant species known for their repellent effects, evolved from traditional farming practices and farmers experimentation. Many of these vegetable and spice species are also cultivated in the DR (eg garlic, basil, peppermint, tagetes, tomato, onion) and could be integrated into pest management.
Comparable belief systems in traditional plant protection methodology can also be figured out, for example, the integration of spirituality to combat massive occurrence of pests like Erinnyis ello in cassava and other caterpillar species both in the DR and in India. There are special healers in the DR who work with magic-religious formulas to kill or guide caterpillars or ants out of the field. In Sri Lanka, farmers organize special religious ceremonies to control leaf-eating caterpillars in crops (The efficacy of
the rituals, however, must be carefully assessed lest we merely sustain superstitions :Ed)
Lunar phases and pest control
Certain lunar phases are considered to be auspicious for different farm operations and are believed to prevent pests and diseases. In the DR most peasants believe these influences are on crop growth and plant resistance, size and shape of fruits and tubers and storage qualities of harvested products. Storage pests like Sitophilus oryzae, S. zeamays, can be controlled and reduced considerably. Farmers consider full moon as the most appropriate time for cutting wood. Wood cut during the new moon on the other hand rots after a few months and is attacked easily by Kalothermis bremis. Similar beliefs are reported in India as well as in some local communities of USA.
In India farmers recognized an increase of termite population in certain lunar phases (Gupta 1997). In many other countries there have been a multitude of experiments investigating the lunar influences on crop growth and development cycles of insects (Schad and Endres 1997).
Other parallels in Dominican and Indian local practices may be identified. In both countries there are two special leguminosae type species which are known to rural people as fish poison and used for catching fish. Long ago, Dominican peasants in the northern mountain area used Tephrosia sinapou or Juanibré, a bush, to catch fish. They stacked the leaves and roots of the bush and threw them into the river. As a result the fish were blinded and died; pregnant animals drinking this water aborted. As the plant was well known for its poisonous and abortive functions, one of the species was investi-gated by the farmers for its pesticidal effects. Today resources of Tephrosia sinapou are very limited and hardly any fish is left in the mountain rivers. (Some tribals of the district Bharuch of Gujarat use any of the following plants as fish poison: (i) Bark of ‘chinara’ (ii) Leaves of ‘punja’ (iii) Plant of ‘agari’ (iv) Fruit of ‘gala’ (v) Plant of ‘chido’ along with root. The plant is crushed on stones near the stream and suspended in the water after stopping water flow with bunds made of branches, clay and stones. Among all these plants ‘chido’ is the most toxic for fish. refer HB vol 4(2&3) 1993, p 24. Ed).
In India farmers use the same method today using 'dandavon' (Acacia auriculiformis), a tree which was introduced from Australia to India in 1985. (Its other uses are not known to the author.)
There are many other parallels like the use of special protective plants with magic or spiritual functions to protect crops or people (e g Ruta chalepensis which is used in the D R, India, Africa and Romania against the ‘evil eye’) or plants with certain toxic or repellent qualities used against rats, ants, cockroaches and parasitic organisms.
As Gupta (1997) commented on the variety of parallel indigenous practices: “The theory of simultaneous innovations seems at work.” Biggs (1980), Gupta (1981), Verma and Singh (1969) and several other scholars had drawn our attention to the potential of learning from local knowledge and innovations. Pastakia (1995), recently showed how the values of the peasants influenced the way new methods and approaches to pest management were explored. The real challenge seems to be to find ways of encouraging farmers to pursue their own experiments aided by farmer innovators from other regions as well as by empathetic formal scientists.
References
Biggs, S D. 1980. The Failure of Farmers to Adopt New Technological Packages Entirely May be A Sign of Creativity Rather than Backwardness. Ceres, 13(4):23-26.
Gupta, A K. 1997. personal communication
Gupta, A K. 1981. Viable Projects for Unviable Farmers - An Action Research, IUAES Inter Congress, Amsterdam
Gupta, A K. 1980. Communicating with Farmers, New Delhi: Indian Institute of Public Admninstration, mimeo
Gupta, A K and Patel K. K. 1992. Survey of Innovations for Sustainable Development: Do Methods matter?, IIM, Ahmedabad.
Jain, S. and Lata, S. 1996. Unique Indigenous Amazonian uses of some plants growing in India, IK Monitor 4 (3)
Parrish, A. 1994. Indigenous Post-harvest Knowledge in an Egyptian Oasis, IK Monitor 2 (1)
Pastakia, A R. 1995. Grassroots Innovations for Sustainable Development: The Case of Agricultural Pest Management. Unpublished Dissertation. IIM, Ahmedabad.
Verma, M R and Singh Y P. 1969. A Plea for Studies in Traditional Animal Husbandry. Farmer, vol XLIII(2):93-98.
Schad, W. and Endres, K P. 1997. Biologie des Mondes, Stuttgart: Hirzel
Sharaby, A. 1988. Evaluation of some Myrtaceae plant leaves as protectants against the infestation by Sitophilus oryzae L. and Sitophilus granarius L., Insect Sci. Applic. 9 (4): 465-468 |
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee, 8(4):3, 1997 |
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