Mission 4: Visit to Gwaiau

Kastom Gaden Association
Planting Materials Network, Department of Agriculture and Livestock, and PestNet

Linking Farmers to Plant Protection Network
(Solomon Islands)

Project #1222 infoDev The World Bank

23 to 26 May 2004

Sydney
May 2004

Introduction

This is the first visit by PestNet since the taro workshop in January 2004. The aim of the visit was to monitor how farmers are implementing the actions agreed. The visit was made in the company of the SPC PPS Extension Officer, Stephen Hazelman. The CFO was unable to visit due to illness in the family.

Gwaiau is a relatively remote highland village some 5 hours walk from the coast. Some people take longer to walk the steep muddy track, others a shorter time. There is a school.

Background

Farmers at the workshop agreed to test four methods of controlling alomae, the lethal virus disease of taro; these were:

∑ Pull out and burn affected plants, and plant a strong smelling tree (a traditional control measure);
∑ Pull out and burn affected plants, and spray surrounding plants with Uka (Derris sp.);
∑ Pull out and burn affected plants, and spray surrounding plants with Furi (an unidentified tree extract);
∑ Pull out and burn affected plants, and spray surrounding plants with tobacco extract.

A meeting was held on arrival with the community, but as they had not been told of the visit beforehand only a few farmers attended. The gardens of a majority of these were visited during the next 2 days.

Results

Meetings with farmers

The results of the visit can be summarised as follows:

1) The farmers are improving the control of alomae, but are not experimenting in the sense of comparing treated and non-treated gardens.
2) Most farmers are pulling out affected plants and burning them; some are plating a strong smelling tree in place of the affected plant, some are spraying the surrounding plants with Uka (Derris sp.), Furi (unknown) or tobacco.
3) Among the farmers met, there seems to be a better understanding how the disease spreads (insects and planting material).
4) There is a growing understanding that control measures should include the entire community; how this might be done was discussed.

There are two types of taro gardens in the village. Those at distance from the village (30-60 minutes), which are large and important sources of food, and smaller ones within the village area, owned by young people or those two busy to cultivate larger gardens or who are young. All those with large gardens are making a serious attempt to control the disease, and, with one exception, are pulling out affected plants as soon as they are seen. The exception is a young farmer who planted a garden, which become infected and the disease spread so fast that he did not know what to do. The smaller gardens have a lot of alomae, and are sources of inoculum for the larges ones. Details of each of the gardens visited are given in the table below (Table 1).

Discussions at a concluding meeting, mostly attended by farmers whose gardens had been visited, centred on the need to tackle alomae collectively. There was no point in one farmer trying to control the disease whilst his or her neighbour did not. The idea of an alomae committee was raised, perhaps with representatives from the several churches. Such a committee might provide guidelines to the community on how the disease should be controlled and encourage all members of the village to participate. It was left for people at the meeting to discuss the matter with their respective churches: James (SSEC); Jack/Peter (Jehovah’s Witness); Frederick (Baptist); and Feni (SDA). Michael said he would talk to the Feni, the chief of the village when he returns from Honiara at the end of June.

There is a need to have an alomae leaflet: a cartoon strip with words in pidgin.

Meetings with schoolchildren

Steve Hazelman met with the senior children and teachers to introduce the concept of email. The children will write a small project on collecting and evaluating taro; they will then take the document to Silolo and see it transmitted to SPC for consideration. More details on this can be obtained from Steve’s report.

Conclusions

1. There is a need for the CFO and the DAL field officer to visit Gwaiau more often, once every 6 weeks would be ideal. Visits must be made to gardens; it is not sufficient just to talk to farmers in the village, either individually or in groups. When in the gardens conversations on the control of taro diseases should be noted. The discussions should farmers said he or she would do, what they have done and the outcome of the discussion between the CFO or extension officer.

2. Farmers are starting to understand how alomae can be controlled and they are carrying out control measures, in contrast to the view given in the CFO’s reports. Farmers need to be encouraged and community engagement in controlling the diseases needs to be emphasised.

3. The next visit by the CFO/Extension Officer should be in the June. At that time the following should be done:

∑ Visit gardens of other farmers to discuss what they said they would do compared to what they have done.
∑ Assist farmers form an alomae group to take a community approach to management of the disease.
∑ Write a report on the visit.

4. The school children’s project has considerable potential for other centres as a means of introducing email to people who have no previous experience of its operation.

5. If the village continues to show that they can manage alomae, the project should plan to extend the concepts to other localities in the highlands, using the farmers of Gwaiau as resource persons.

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank the Gwaiau community for their support and infoDev World Bank for funding.



Grahame Jackson
PestNet
Sydney, 30 May 2004


Table 1. Farmers visited, what was seen and what was recommended


Farmer What the farmers said he/she would do What the farmer has done What I suggested the farmer should do
Jack Sunate’e Furi spray After the workshop he found 3 alomae plants in his garden, so he pulled them out carefully (as shown at the workshop) and sprayed the adjacent ones with Furi and chilli mixture He added a vine called Kwa’arerebulu to the mixture. Some plants that he is not sure about he has pulled out and left at the side of the garden to see if they recover. Jack seems to understand the association of the planthopper and the disease, and how to control the disease. The advice was to continue as he is doing.
Peter Irolanga Uka spray Peter has used Uka three times. He pulls the alomae-affected plants from the ground, burns them, and sprays the plants around that appear healthy. He says it works. There were a few plants with alomae in the garden at the time of the visit, and Peter said that he would pull them out. Peter seems confident that he can take care of alomae and there is probably little more advice to give him unless he has problems, which is unlikely. He should be encouraged to remove the plants with alomae as he sees them, rather than leaving them until another time.
Michael Momesi Uka spray After the workshop, he found seven alomae affected plants in his garden and removed them. His preferred technique is to place a rice bag over the plant and pull it out by holding the base. He then sprayed adjacent plants with Uka. There were diseased plants at the time of the visit. Michael is an elderly man with considerable expertise in taro cultivation. Now that he understands the way that alomae spreads, it is unlikely that he will need further assistance. He suggested at the meeting that farmers should collaborate to control the disease and is a supporter of the
James Ngeobulu Tobacco spray with chilli He found two alomae plants after the workshop and pulled these out. A week later he found five more. These too were pulled out and in their place he planting the strong smelling tree (Aimamokwa). There are several alomae plants in his garden in a small patch. He has to pull out the present affected plants and visit the garden more often to check if others are diseased.
John Maggii Tobacco spray John has not used the tobacco spray. Alomae has got out of control in his garden and a majority of the plants are diseased. It is likely he bought the disease to the garden in planting material from the last crop. John was told to carefully remove the plants and burn them, even though he has abandoned the garden. He was told to nursery the remaining healthy plants, checking to see if they have alomae before taking them to a new garden for plating.
Rino Pull out and burn Rino has about six plants with alomae in a small garden that is 1-2-month’s old. Rino was not available.
Eunice Uka spray There is a small patch of alomae containing about 20 p[lants in her garden. The plants are 2-3-month’s old. Eunice was not available.

Farmer What the farmers said he/she would do What the farmer has done What I suggested the farmer should do
Samuel Maeta Tobacco spray He bought taro from a garden that had alomae. He said that sprays of Furi and chilli did not check the disease. In the new garden he has pulled ut the plants and used the strong-smelling Aimamokwa. He understands how the disease spreads in planthoppers as well as planting material. He believes he cont control the disease by roguing and is doing that regularly.
Feni Pull out and burn Feni has been I Honiara since the workshop and was not there to interview. He has six alomae plants in his small garden in the village. There are a large number of planthoppers on the taro, some with long wings. His wife and sons were told to remove the diseased plants.