THE GALL-FLY ATTACK CASE

Date: 8th September 2019

Section: C

Submitted by:
Deep Vora (p39132)
Juned Ahmed (p39134)
Karan Paruthi (p39135)
Maitri Patel (p39139)
Minil Patel (p39143)
Sakhi Rao (p39160)

Submitted to:
Prof. Ashish Argade
CASE ANALYSIS

Raghu is having a difficult time in Rampur village to convince the farmers into spraying of
insecticide for the gall-fly attack. The attack had already reached the village and the farmers
along with the panch were initially affirmative into spraying of insecticide. But after the Pooja
and sprinkling of holy water, and subsequent reduction in the effects of fly attack, farmers
decided not to spray the insecticide. Farmers believe that insects develop resistance towards
the insecticide they spray and they get bigger in size. So if they attack again next year, and if
it’s an epidemic, these insecticides won’t work. Raghu on the other hand wants to contain the
current problem because he is of the opinion that if not controlled right now, this attack itself
would turn into an epidemic. Currently he is estimating around 20-25% damage to crops if
nothing is done for prevention.

What went wrong?

Mr. Raghu surely made sure to spread awareness about the epidemic but failed to explain the
implication of the epidemics to the villagers. Also, the decision of doing Puja and using
pesticides at the same time seemed like a wrong decision.

What could have been done?

Even though farmers may be right in thinking that they need effective insecticides when there
is an actual epidemic, there are some steps that may be taken to control damage:

1. Kilaram and Dashrath agree with Raghu on the importance of spraying the insecticide now.
Together they hold around 73 acres of land (exhibit 2). Total land holding is around 440 acres
(calculated from exhibit 1), which means that together, both hold about 16.5 % of land. If they
spray insecticide in their farms, the total damage can be controlled if not completely prevented.

2. Another way is to plant an alternate host around the surrounding of the villages. Wild rice
such as Orya rufipogon is an alternate host for paddy gall fly. When they attack the alternate
host, Raghu can ask the villagers to spray insecticide before they start affecting their crops. In
this way the damage can be minimised.

3. Raghu can explain the farmers about the possible use of high yielding variety of seeds for
paddy in future. Currently only 14 households use HYV seeds (exhibit 1). HYV seeds are more
resistant to pest and insect attack. For the already sown paddy, farmers can be asked to spray
the insecticide and in future use HYV seeds. This can help farmers counter their fear against
their insecticides not being effective in next year.

He should have taken with him subject experts with him to explain the villagers about the
epidemic and to convert and influence social and cultural factors. It was very necessary on his
part to make villagers understand the even if a small farmers paddy field is infected by this
epidemic it will spread in the whole fields of the village and everyone specially the big farmers.
He should not have agreed to perform puja and using of pesticides simultaneously as the if the
intensity of the attack reduces the villagers would think that it had happened because they had
performed puja and that god was pleased with them and now nothing will harm their fields and
there is no need for spraying. He should have let the villagers do the Puja first and in few days
if the attack got serious then he should have convinced them to use pesticides. This would have
built trust in the villagers that there was genuine need of spraying to save the paddy fields.