Helopeltis Damage - Alarming !!!

Helopeltis Damage: Alarming !!

4th July 2010

I have been visiting Upper Assam & Arunachal almost every week for the past couple of months. The increase in Helopeltis infestation has been alarming. I have just returned from yet another trip - I am shocked by the extensive & wide spread damage being caused by Helopeltis almost everywhere across the valley. Huge areas are ‘blacked-out’ with not a single growing shoot. The June crop is hit very badly and the effect of this damage could go into even August, as many of the pruned & deep skiffed sections will take much longer to fill-up.

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The weather conditions, for over three months, have been very conducive for the spread of this pest. The gardens have been spraying against this pest when ever the weather conditions have permitted. However, the battle to control this pest has not been successful. The planters are feeling very helpless as the current package of practices is not giving desired results, at least not in the current conditions.

In the Dec2008-Feb 2009 issue I had written an article “Monster Pests” that gave warnings of such situations around the corner. I append a few excerpts from it :

1. The single strategy of chemical control has become an economic disaster for the tea industry. What Claude Alvares had to say in the 1960s sounds so appropriate today “Once every potent chemical has been used & found wanting, there is simply no alternative but to return to traditional & less toxic means of controlling the insects that modern farming methods have turned into pests.”

2. Inappropriate coverage:

a. When spraying system is inappropriate –

i. the weaker members of the insect population are being weeded out. So in many areas and among many species only the strong & fit remain to defy our efforts to control them.

ii. as the dosages are not lethal to these that survive/escape they tend to build resistance.”

There are two important areas that need to be checked out ( evaluated) as I feel these are essential to get control of Helopeltis:-

1. Spraying Equipment: Our equipment is not penetrative enough and you often see people using hand sprayers in mature tea with a dense canopy. This is the single biggest reason for the pest not coming under control.

a. Because the target pest is not hit the chemical usage increases as repeated rounds are required.

b. Thus stronger chemicals are used & more often.

c. This ensures that all natural enemies are eradicated and so the pests population increases.

d. I have been doing tracer trials with an adjustable lance for the Cifarelli sprayer and the initial results are very encouraging. I have had 19.8% better penetration into the canopy. Further modifications are going on to increase penetration further. This will ensure that the target pests are hit, spraying rounds are reduced, lesser chemicals are used and more natural enemies get a chance to survive.

The prototype of the adjustable lance for Cifarelli sprayers

Within a month we will have an adapter ready for fitting onto existing sprayers to increase efficiency of the sprayers & efficacy of the applied chemicals.

2. Monitoring System: The accurate objective monitoring of the level of infestation of Helopeltis’ is crucial to its control. The system has to be simple so that it can be adopted across estates, but it must be accurate, so it gives a correct picture. The easiest & most effective system is, what I call, the ‘Count System’ –

a. 2 or 3 persons (monitors) are carefully selected & trained in the system of pest count. Only fresh punctures (< style="mso-spacerun:yes">

b. The score is recorded on a spread sheet/ wall ‘count-chart’. The ‘count-chart’ is in the same format as the plucking chart – Section Nos. 0n Y-axis & Dates on X-axis.

c. As the counts are taken the score is entered against the date for Helopeltis & Red Spider Mites separately. One look at the chart it gives you a full picture of the pest infestation across the estate & also what rate it is increasing/decreasing at.

d. The day spraying is done the chemical used is put in the relevant place.

e. There is an Action Threshold Level (ATL) for each month & only when the infestation reaches ATL is spraying done.

f. Post spraying count is done between 24 to 48 hrs & this is also put on the ‘count-chart’. This shows you how effective your spraying has been.

The situation is so alarming that it needs drastic and quick action. But what action? It is not like before where it was considered that those who were not following the research recommendations were suffering. Now it is the majority across the valley. The Research Organisation and the think tanks of the tea industry need to put their heads together & look for systems, beyond what we have today. Only if we admit that current systems are not yielding desired results will we be able to find a more effective system.

Estate:				Month:		February			Pest:		Helopeltis
											Red Spider
		Pest Count Chart
		D a t e s
Sect #	Area	1	2	3	4		5	6		7		8	9		10
1	10.2	RS 0.21										rs 0.32
2	7.32		h- 0.42		S-Th+N			h-0.12
3	11.12			h -0.18											h - 0.27
4	6.55				RS- 0.31		Sulf			RS- 0.04
5	12.21						h - 0.13
6A	6.68							RS - 0.15
6B	2.87	RS 0.24						RS - 0.35							RS -0.13
		h - 0.25								h - 0.41		Th+Sulf			h - 0.11

Disasters - we need to do our bit

Last year in mid August Darjeeling had some very heavy rains that caused a lot of land slides and tremendous damage to property. A week ago Bandung area of Indonesia had massive rains which caused huge loss to life and property. These storms are in all probability going to get more intense & more frequent; we need to seriously look at all that we can do to mitigate the problems they could cause.

here is how the news papers reported on this:
Dozens feared dead in Java landslide At least 46 people are dead or missing in remote Indonesian village, authorities say.

updated 11:21 a.m. ET Feb. 24, 2010
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Rescuers brought in heavy digging equipment Wednesday to clear a muddy landslide that killed at least 17 people and left 29 others buried on Indonesia's main island of Java, an official said.
Days of heavy rain prompted the landslide Tuesday afternoon at a mountainous tea plantation near the village of Tenjoljaya in Ciwidey district of West Java province, destroying scores of homes.
Scores of soldiers and police officers plus two excavators bolstered search efforts Wednesday and 17 bodies had been recovered from a vast pile of clay by the afternoon, National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono said.
The search was postponed Wednesday afternoon due to heavy rain, which made some fear there would be more landslides.
At least 29 others are believed to have been buried by the mud. Kardono said: "It seems there is no possibility of anyone among those 46 surviving."
Officials had earlier said 72 had probably died but later revised the figure down, although the true toll could still be higher.
Another 15 people had been injured, Kardono said, two of whom had been admitted to hospital.
The winding mountain roads made boggy by the days of heavy rain were hampering efforts to get equipment and rescuers to the site, which is about 90 miles southeast of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, Kardono said.
He added that more landslides were possible.
Hundreds evacuatedSome 600 villagers from the region have been evacuated to temporary shelters in safer locations, Kardono said. Most of these were from unaffected nearby villages that were in landslide-prone areas.
Many of the victims were plantation laborers who lived in huts on the plantation. Most of the recovered bodies of men, women and a child were dug up from the residential area.
Villagers unearthed the first victims late Tuesday using farm tools and bare hands.
Vice President Boediono, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, visited the site Wednesday, accompanied by several government ministers.
Landslides are a common hazard in Indonesia during the current latter weeks of the monsoon season.

Climate Change & Tea Industry:

“Nature is very complex & we have very little understanding of these complexities. So sometimes in our wisdom we try and alter a little & the devastating effect of it might never be known to us as we will not be able to understand what caused it.”

Over the past decade the industry has been witnessing some dramatic changes, besides its fortunes. Yields are dropping, pests and diseases are increasing & becoming more resistant, response to applied fertilizer is reducing, organic matter & microbial population in soils is reducing, weed flora is changing & becoming more resistant, water-tables are rising during monsoons & falling during the dry season, weather conditions are becoming extreme & erratic…. I am afraid, that in the recent euphoria of high tea prices, these are not being given the due importance and ‘out-of-the-box thinking’ that they must be given. We need to look deeper and ask ourselves some questions. I will leave out the market as otherwise I will loose focus.

i) Why are we generally having a steady decline in crop yields?
ii) Why are we getting such intense & widespread outbreaks of pests?
iii) Are we getting proportionate response from applied fertilizers?
iv) Is our usage of Pesticides & Fungicides reducing? Are our teas getting cleaner & safer? Is the consumer satisfied with the chemical residues in our teas?
v) What can we do to mitigate the effect of the erratic weather conditions?
vi) Are we doing anything dramatically different, from what we have always done, to tackle these changing conditions (some of which are creeping up upon us)?

But before we take these up individually, let us see the broader picture.
We need to be looking at fundamental changes in our systems and operations, rather than technological tweaking on the margins. And this means changes and costs that some of our current crop of CEOs, Proprietors & Research Associations are afraid to discuss and address.

When you have the highest technological base, the best laboratories, the biggest & best Research Institutes, the widest & most experienced knowledge base, the most diverse tea portfolio, the biggest internal market, you should want higher standards: because your industry should be able to meet them while the other countries will not be able to do so as easily. But it is us who want to drop the standards. MRLs are basic to standards and we can not get away with teas that are not clean, even for our domestic market. We saw what happened to the Colas when high residues were detected in them. As an industry we do not have the means to fight back like the Colas did. And let us not fool ourselves, many of the chemicals still permitted today will soon be banned or the MRLs reduced to such an extent that you will not be able to use them. Where do we go then ?

The erratic weather conditions will continue to plague us. The weather is not going to be what we have been used to, let us accept this and go ahead. Our drought conditions across the tea growing areas are a taste of what is to come. The most important conclusions about Climate Change disruption is that it is already accelerating and doing significant harm… likely catastrophic disruptions lurk along the business-as-usual trajectory we (not just India) are following. We need to make fundamental changes to agricultural practices to mitigate their effect.

Let us take a deeper look into some of the above points:
i) Why are we having a decline in crop yields?
There has generally been a decrease in the yields in most companies. This is in spite of increased use of nutrients, chemicals & Plant Growth Regulators. What could be the reasons?
i. Are the bushes too old? Do they need replacement?
ii. Declining fertilizer-use-efficiency? Why?
iii. Rise or fall in water tables?
iv. Climatic changes? Erratic Weather?
v. How is Soil Health? Do we need something other than the nutrients that we are applying? Or have we depleted the organic matter & destroyed the micro flora?
vi. Are there some other limiting factors?
ii) Why are we getting such intense & widespread outbreaks of pests?
a. We are using many new molecules & very potent chemicals. Yet we have increasing incidence & severity of pest attacks – Helopeltis, Mites & Looper caterpillars, …
b. New package-of-practices/schedules have been made by research with newer molecules and yet the problem is increasing!
c. IPM is also reportedly being used in some gardens.
d. Is our spraying effective & efficient enough? Why is our pesticide usage ever increasing ?!
Is there a trick we are missing? Do we need to look beyond our current approach?

vii) What can we do to mitigate the effect of the erratic weather conditions?
a. Are we radically changing agricultural practices to study & develop new ways to overcome some of these problems? The erratic weather is not only there to stay, but with our contribution also, ‘climate change’ will continue to accelerate. We have to alter our practices to mitigate its effect.
b. Have we looked at how the changes in weather conditions are affecting pests & diseases ?
iii) Are we doing anything markedly differently to tackle these problems?
a. I don’t know?! It’s the same pruning & timing of pruning, same fertilizer policy, same spraying systems & equipment, the same soil parameters & amendments, the same planting calendar, the same machinery & manufacturing systems….
b. I can’t see anything really different, except in the case of pest control. The pests are the same but hardier & more persistent. The infestation is more severe & more often. The crop damage is more. The big and constant change is the chemicals – the latest ones, with improved molecules, keep coming in and, in quick time, replacing the earlier ones. The incidence of pest, however, keeps getting worse & the chemical usage increases. Has decades of being on this ‘treadmill-of-chemical-control’ reduced our pest problems?
c. The Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs) have become an ever increasing problem for the producer & also for the consumer, as he wants this healthy beverage, but without the ‘poison’. They will continue to get more stringent.

Let us look a fresh at what we could possibly do about it.
There is a Chinese proverb – “ When the wind changes direction, there are those who build walls & those who build windmills”. When we come in only with reactive chemicals to tackle our ever increasing pests, we are ‘building a wall’….
What makes me really optimistic, though, is when I now meet planters/CEOs they are forever discussing how the current chemicals/practices are not helping control pests and the problems are getting bad to worse. The CEO’s & GMs often hasten to add “… but we are quite OK, as our higher prices will more than make-up for the crop decline.” But imagine if you had the same crop with these prices! And what if pests chewed-up your crop and the prices were what they were a few years ago?!. Sadly, sooner than later, the reduction in MRLs will also contribute to my optimism, as we will be pushed out of our denial/defensive mode and take the problem head-on. The consumer will ensure that. But do we need to be kicked into doing so?
Let us not spend time on finding ways of defending why we have no option but to have these residue levels, or ask the consumer to accept these MRLs because we can not help it. The problem certainly does not have a simple solution (at least not on the path that we are treading). Let us first admit that we have NOT found the solution, only then we can move forward and look at other paths. I am NOT saying that organic is the only solution. R & D needs to be working on looking at new options & also at improving efficiency & efficacy of spraying equipment & applied chemicals.

We know very little about how different highly disruptive, nonlinear changes in climate might interact with one another and affect our crops, pests, diseases,…. But what we can do is to look at what climatic changes are likely to take place over the next 20 years - see their individual / synergistic /collective impact on various aspects of our industry. (I append a spread sheet, as a sample, that gives an idea of how we should go about it.) And then take each aspect and see how we can mitigate its effect. For example -
a. Low winter temperatures used to kill some insects/disease pathogens/fungi – these might now have longer/accelerated periods of growth.
b. The Climate Change will cause more intense weather -
i. More violent storms/winds/… ( cyclone Aila hit W Bengal, and has caused a complete disruption to the monsoon rains.)
ii. More intense downpours/flooding/…(We saw what happened in Mid August in Darjeeling causing huge land slides and erosion. If we had addressed certain steps to prevent erosion the effect would not have been that devastating.)
iii. Change in Wind patterns/velocity
iv. Change in monsoon patterns (2009 monsoon !!)
v. Change in rates of evaporation
vi. More fog/mist/smog

“Change is the one constant in life. We must realize that if we want to see things remain as they are THINGS WILL HAVE TO CHANGE: everything around us is changing.” What we can change is the way we deal with change and the way we are changed by change.
Right now, the acute awareness of the true scale & speed of the problem remains confined largely to a precious few, but soon enough it will be blindingly obvious to everyone.
· Incremental breakthroughs are all we had, but exponential is what we desperately need.
· We haven’t really tried – we need to put into place the basic requirements for trying: a coordinated set of policies, tax incentives, disincentives, and regulations that would stimulate the marketplace…. We need long-term clarity for investors to make big bets.

“ There is an almost eerie realization now, that you can’t tinker with nature’s operating system without eventually paying for it, sometime, somewhere” – Heidi Cullen (The climate expert for Weather Channel).

It is impossible to stress how important improving (energy) efficiency is & how great an impact it can have on reducing your energy bill & mitigating CC.

Instead of increasing our Chemical & Fertilizer inputs we need to find more effective use of chemicals & better fertilizer-use-efficiency. Is there some other limiting factor in our soils which is the cause of the decreasing response to currently recommended doses of fertilizers? The new government policy on fertilizer subsidy should be used as an opportunity in reduction of the major nutrients & look at other contributory factors.
Those who are opposed to the change to Organic are often overstating the cost of the change (mainly loss of crop) and understating the benefits. They are dramatically underestimating the innovations it would inspire, the emissions it would save & reverse, and the real costs it would save.
Can our machines, motors & systems be made more efficient & effective? Could we reduce energy usage, improve productivity,… Can we lower CO2 emissions, grow more fuel, get more carbon credits? Can we reduce soil wash, leeching & erosion? Can we do rain water harvesting? Can we use more natural light in our factories, offices, homes, store rooms,… ? Can we improve energy efficiency in the buildings, lights, homes, vehicles, machines, appliances, cooling & heating systems, …. Can we eliminate the concept of waste, or at least Reduce, Reuse & Recycle it? Remember the reduction in waste also means substantial savings in costs. We need to quickly adopt all the cost effective & energy efficient systems existing today and then get on with new technologies.
We need the Govt/Tea Board to level the playing field: the subsidy being given for Fertilizers is huge & thus we need to give at least proportionate benefits as incentives to farmers going organic. That will create the shift to cleaner teas. Once the costs of production fall, there will be more demand & an incentive to produce more. The best driver is the market & the Govt & the Tea Board should do their bit to aid this process.

The World is concerned about Climate Change, Green House Gasses, CO2 emissions,…. Let us not use Climate Change as an excuse for our inadequacies. Climate change is blamed for crop losses, droughts, pests, erosion,… you name it. If we resign to this we will never find ways & means to overcome things that might still be in our hands (or at least to a great extent). Yes, you can not do anything about CC in the short run, to make a difference to your immediate problems. But we can work to find what we can do to change our practices & systems to mitigate the problems.

Tea - Another trip to Indonesia

I made another trip to Indonesia in Aug/Sep 2009. South Java trip first to Rachmat Badrudin's plantations and then a look at Ciwangi Estate (in Cianjur district, close to Sukabumi). The good thing was that after the visits we went off to Bali - the earthquake struck 6 hrs before we flew back to Jakarta.

Above are are some photographs of Rachmat's estate & then Ciwangi estate below.

The industry in Indonesia has tremendous potential to improve quality and crop and threatten the so called 'big boys'. What is lacking is the investment into machinery and training. Some investments could give a ROI (return on investment) of less than 12 months. And it could take the individual estate/company onto another level. The technology in the field, like in most of the growing countries is the same as we have been doing for generations. Many things have changed and are changing. An excerpt from my forthcoming article on 'Climate Change and the Tea Industry' runs as follows " The Climate Change will cause more intense weather -
i. More violent storms/winds/… ( cyclone Aila hit W Bengal, and has caused a complete disruption to the monsoon rains.)
ii. More intense downpours/flooding/…(We saw what happened in Mid August in Darjeeling causing huge land slides and erosion. If we had addressed certain steps to prevent erosion the effect would not have been that devastating.)
iii. Change in Wind patterns/velocity
iv. Change in monsoon patterns (2009 monsoon !!)
v. Change in rates of evaporation
vi. More fog/mist/smog
“Change is the one constant in life. We must realize that if we want to see things remain as they are THINGS WILL HAVE TO CHANGE: everything around us is changing.” What we can change is the way we deal with change and the way we are changed by change.
Right now, the acute awareness of the true scale & speed of the problem remains confined largely to a precious few, but soon enough it will be blindingly obvious to everyone. We need to start working on making changes to our agricultural practices to mitigate the effect of the changes coming about in our climate."The World is concerned about Climate Change, Green House Gasses, CO2 emissions,…. Let us not use Climate Change as an excuse for our inadequacies. Climate change is blamed for crop losses, droughts, pests, erosion,… you name it. If we resign to this we will never find ways & means to overcome things that might still be in our hands (or at least to a great extent). Yes, you can not do anything about CC in the short run, to make a difference to your immediate problems. But we can work to find what we can do to change our practices & systems to mitigate the problems."

And then we went to Sanur Beach,Bali. Wow!!! Kuta was like the Calangut/Baga of Goa, But Sanur was great.

But by far the best time was with my Nasim, Shivy and Angel in Jakarta.

To School in Rain; a Rainbow

The lush pest free garden

Namchic Team - Sudhir, Ashok,Bordoloi

Looper caterpillar walking to his death

Pest Control with NO Chemicals- The Namchic Story

Namchic is a young little garden nestled up in the Arunachal foothills in Changlang district, close to the Burma (Myanmar) border. Planting started in the year 2000 & the area has steadily grown to 120 hectares of a mix of high quality tea plants. Most of the garden comprises of the following clones - S3A3, P-126A, TV-1,TA-17, N-436 & T3E3.
As can be expected in gardens with a major area covered in high quality clones, the pests have been quite a nightmare. Helopeltis, Red Spider mites and Green fly have been the major cause of the garden spending almost Rs.7000/ ha in an effort to control these pests in 2008. The incidence of pests & cost of control has steadily increased each year. The situation in Dec ‘08 & Jan ’09 was worse, thanks to the worst drought since this plantation began.

The list of chemicals being used & the volumes of them was frightening. But then many other ‘well-organised’ gardens are even more frightening. They had asked for help in mid 2008 in controlling pests but I declined then; I told them that my suggestions would be so dramatically different from the ‘tredmill-of-chemical-controll’ they were on, that they would reject them outright. However, during the process of training the staff and executives on other aspects like plucking, pruning, young tea management, etc. the executives would keep wanting to know more and more about pest control specially because their problems continued to get worse. In the late evening training secessions this would keep coming up & as I saw interest build up, I slowly started whetting their appetite : -

a) “ The laws of nature demand that we look at the whole system . To control any individual organism, we need to understand how it relates to the ecosystem in which it operates.”-John Teasdale –a scientist with USDA Agricultural Research Services
b) “ We must change our philosophy, abandon our attitude of human superiority and admit that in many cases in natural environments we find ways and means of limiting populations of organism in a more economical way than we can do it ourselves.” - Canadian entomologist, G.C. Ullyett in 1950 s.
c) Talking about the ideal conditions in an estate when there is a delicate balance in the whole estate & its surroundings - when pests increase the predators have more food & so their population increases, and pests reduce. When the pests reduce the predator’s food reduces & so their population comes down.
d) This delicate balance is what sustained agriculture for centuries till we started wanting to dominate nature. Then came the chemicals and things have never been the same.
e) I started identifying beneficial insects in Namchic & showing in the field how some of them were being killed by the chemicals being sprayed.

Finally by January 2009 their interest had built up enough and they were really keen on this change. They were ready & so I became the change agent. From that day the chemicals were removed from the garden ( I asked each assistant to keep a can of their favourite chemical in the store, as they might feel more comfortable with them at hand. But these were not to be used without my prior permission. They were not touched). The rest of the 30 + chemicals were sent off to a partner’s garden.

I then started on the Whole Ecosystem approach to pest control and 6 months on I am amazed with the sterling work the whole team has done. It is actually far far better than I could have wished for –
· the pests are under good control
· the garden is looking very healthy
· the costs are down
· the ‘poisons’ are out of the system
· the crop is 46.13% up till end of July

I did not expect such wonderful results in such a short time. But they are there to see. Some of the major negatives have actually become positives – e.g. the jungle all around the garden is normally held responsible for the sheltering of helopeltis and looper; we have found them being used as safe havens by our many beneficials. They have actually helped build up the beneficials population very fast. The whole management team needs a commendation.

What all has changed and happened at the estate –

· We generally concentrate on the tea plant and especially the leaf we harvest. But to manage a tea plantation well, it is important to understand that the tea plant is only one of the many parts of the tea ecosystem. This ecosystem is composed of many parts, including the tea plant, shade trees, other plants, the soil, insects and diseases that feed on the plants, insects and animals that feed on the pests, the weather, the pruning & plucking policy and many other parts. Every part has a function & each part affects the other parts, helping to maintain balance and stability.
· A comprehensive approach to nurturing populations of beneficials has been adopted
§ rearing fields, conservation buffers and other methods to attract build the beneficial organisms that protect our crops.
§ Beneficial predatory and parasitic organisms generally do not flourish in fields with only one plant species. They need ‘overwintering’ sites & different types of microenvironments – where they can find protection from their own natural enemies. These have been created by letting natural vegetation grow along waterways, bare patches, roadsides …. In future no big plots of the same clone will be planted in one area
· There is a tremendous increase in ladybird beetles, praying mantis of different types, predatory wasps, spiders, dragonflies, birds….
· Pests generally succeed by adapting to the specific food, water, shelter & light conditions in a particular farming system. They explode only when external factors upset this delicate balance. By the stopping of chemicals we have partly ensured least upsetting of an important external factor.
· We are not neglecting the golden opportunity to prevent, even while we seek to cure.
· With chemicals removed we have introduced some biocides etc – neem, karanj (Pongamia pinnata) & beauveria bassiana. But the whole idea is to slowly ease these out too, as the balance in the environment gets established. We have also started on some of our own concoctions prepared from plants & waste.
· Even for nutrition we have started making some concoctions from waste and these have recently been introduced in some young teas, to slowly ease out fertilizers.
· The obsession with having the garden weed-free is out the window. We tolerate a bit of weeds as long as they don’t compete too much with the tea plants. And we try and encourage the softer weeds to takeover from the noxious ones.
· Last month we were observing a looper caterpillar walking along a citronella leaf and suddenly we saw it being attacked by a spider which swallowed its head & would not let it go. (they gave me time to take a few photographs – these are shown below).
· The population of cobwebs has grown. We saw a helopeltis caught in one of them. So with the population of webs growing a lot of the adults are going to keep becoming the spiders prey. We also saw another spider pounce upon a wasp & eat it (see photograph).
Lots of things nature is taking over, we just need to keep aiding nature.

We are trying to use the four basic principles of IPM:
1. Grow a healthy plant. Strong, vigorous plants are better able to tolerate insect damage. Pests can never be completely eradicated, so don't try! Instead, manage them at a tolerable level that balances costs and benefits (including economic & environmental) and also provides food for the predators.

2. Protecting and helping natural enemies. Many natural enemies live naturally within the tea field. Others live in wild plants in nearby fields. Just like the crop and pest insects are managed, natural enemies also must be managed so that they become abundant and effective.
3. Regular field surveillance, observation and analysis. The planter team must have good and latest information to make decisions. Pests, natural enemies, the growth stage of the crop, and weather are among the factors that should be observed and analyzed. If there is a presence of or build-up of beneficials, then do not go in for biocides.
4. The management in the field needs to become the experts. They must have confidence in their own knowledge and their ability to make their own decisions.
Would this be the best or easiest way to go organic?

Fertilizers - - 42.65%
Herbicides - - 19.98%
Pesticides - - 34.35%
Mandays - - 13.07%
Plucker’s Productivity - + 8.52%
Crop + 149262 - + 46.13%

The Mature Tea Yield is going to cross 3000Kgs/ha at current trends.

Phassus Borer back again

The bore covered by gelly like excreta- small grubs in it

The borrer removed from the branch A crissilad found in the soil in collar region

Below - Hybiscus plant affected by the Phassus borer

Thick burrow of the large phassus in the hybiscus stem after it was snapped there

This is further to my post on the subject earlier this year. By combing the whole area we had got about 3500 bushes which were pruned to live wood and then burnt immediately close to each location. That was done by March 3rd week. On the 4th & 5th of July '09 we have found 15 newly affected bushes. The team has again been put on it, but this time we do not have much damage as yet. However, the problem is that we have found the same borrer in a Hybiscus plant. I have put this plant under a mosquito net in the chance that we get to trap the moth to see what it looks like. I shall be grateful if someone could let me have a photograph of the moth.
I am posting some photographs taken over my visit earlier this week.

Meeting on Promotion of Organic Tea Cultivation

The meeting which we were scheduling in early July will have to be pushed back a bit because some of us are not being able to get together as early as that. Shall inform the details as soon as we have them sorted out.
Harki

Promotion of Organic Cultivation of Tea

The Small Tea Growers (STG) of Upper Assam are taking a lead in going organic. On the 13th of June,2009 a group of planters got together to discuss the possible road to take to promote conversion to organic. The meeting was also attended by Dr.BP Barua of TRA, Binod Saharia, Subhas, Sunil & Vikash Aggarwals,LP Barua, Ashim Bordoloi, Hemanta Gohain & Asif Hazarika.
This is good news for the industry as it is the way we need to be headed.
To take this further, we are holding a meeting on the 2nd of July in Dibrugarh district where we want to discuss the way forward. I am going to request all organisations interested in taking this direction to come down to attend this meeting.
The country is spending a huge sum of money in subsidies for fertlizers and we need to aproach the Tea Board to give subsidies for converting to Organic. It will save a lot of money for the government, reduce the carbon footprint, reduce residues, improve the environment,.... It is a win win for everyone,
The details of the date, the venue will be communicated over this blog, in addition to the mail id s of all the ones we have.

"Phassus" Borer

All in BLUE is the note from Dr.A.BABU, Head, Division of Entomology, UPASI Tea Research Foundation Tamilnadu, India

The "Phassus” Borer - Hepialid Borer,”Sahyadrassus malabaricus (Moore) Hepialidae :
Lepidoptera), a large caterpillar, endemic to south India. It is often referred by its previous generic name "Phassus" which attacks several forest trees including the teak and eucalyptus. More than 50 species of plants are recorded as host for this pest.Adults have grey forewings with faint mottlings Male produce sharp, pungent, mustard like smell by the scent glands Young caterpillars bore into the stems, excavate long cylindrical tunnels, eating of bark and sapwood resulted in cankers. Top end of the tunnel opens into cankers. Feeding takes place at night . It can move forward and backward with equal ease Attacked bushes can be easily located by the frassy mat, formed of powdered wood and silk, hanging near the holes.
Eggs are broadcast by the female in flight. A few succeed in tunneling the tea stems. Caterpillars make very long galleries that can go down to the roots Mature larva is pale yellow, pencil thick and 6-10 cm long. (We have found some mature larva that are pinkish/red too). Larval duration is 10 months. Pupates in the lower part of the tunnel. Pupal period lasts for 3-5 weeks. “Control measures: The tunneling was found deep into laterals too. And the newly hatched grubs were also seen way up in the tunnels. So that gives us the following two options for now(till we learn more about the pest):
1. Cultural –
a. The affected branches may be cut to sound wood & the cut pasted for protection.
b. The branches /plants pruned off should be removed onto an open area and burnt. The branches should be carried out in bags..
2. Chemical –
a. “The larvae may be killed in situ by pouring a strong solution of an insecticide like Endosulfan/Quinalphos by using an ink filler and plugging the holes”. A syringe could be used with advantage.
b. However, after seeing the extent of tunneling & the location of the grubs I would not recommend this – maybe when there are only isolated cases of infestation, this could work...

teachai.blogspot.com

The Stem Borer from Namchick estate in Arunachal,INDIA

This big stem borer has suddenly been causing a lot of damage. Going around the estate earlier this week I observed a lot of damage. Much more than thought earlier. On putting some workers on detecting & pruning-off till live wood, we have found about 15 plants per hectare that had to be uprooted/collar pruned. And this is what is visible. The team is now going around other areas in the estate in dealing with the affected plants.
The measures being taken are - prune down to live wood, paste the cut, remove the pruned part of the bush out onto a road & burn the lot. Bags are being used to carry the bushes out for burning.
We started splitting the branches to look at the borer (note the attached photographs) we discovered that the larvae, in great numbers, were tucked up in some smaller branches too. The tunnelling too is all over the plant's main stems. Thus I decided that the treatment was to remove affected branches & burn them.
I have asked Director TRA,Jorhat & Director UPASI to have a look at the photographs and let me know what borrer it is. To me it appeared very similar to the 'Fassus Borrer' that was prevelant in Coffee in South India, or was it East Africa ?

The Green Tea that I love drinking

This article has also appeared in the last issue of The Tea Times
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Green Tea – have we found the right type for the Indian/Western consumer ?
In a country that consumes over 800 million Kgs of tea, there is virtually NO consumption of Green tea.
The past decade has seen some changes that are affecting the consumption pattern of tea in India:
i) Increase in the consumption of Orthodox.
ii) Rise in Darjeeling tea consumption.
iii) The interest/enquiry in Organic teas has increased tremendously, and there is a dramatic increase in the demand of these teas. This is a segment that will grow (as a percent of increase in consumption) many times more than demand for other teas.
iv) Health benefits of tea are being discussed across the higher-end segments and that is where the awareness of Organic teas’ added benefits are taking place.
v) This has also increased the discussion of Green tea’s health benefits.
But in spite of this shift, Green Tea consumption has increased only marginally. So I started looking at the reasons for why the consumer in India was not taking to Green Tea ? The best place to start was myself (I am possibly the highest consumer of tea in the world – between 2500 to 2900 ltrs of tea in a year and doing so for almost 4 decades. (Thank God I am in the tea industry…) Because of the pesticide load that I carry over this heavy consumption for 36 years, I now drink mainly Organic tea – Green, Orthodox, Darjeeling, Oolongs & CTC (with Milk + sugar). Why did I take to Green tea only very recently? That is where I began looking for the answer.
This lead me to some high-end consumers of flavoury orthodox (including Darjeeling) teas that are drunk without milk and sugar. What came out across most of the consumers in India was that they did not like the ‘fishy smell’ that most of the green teas have. However, the consumers in Eastern Asia are actually very fond of that particular characteristic of green tea, and would not have it otherwise.
So I worked at identifying what contributed to that ‘fishy flavour’ in the manufacture of green teas. After having found the reason we managed to reduce this flavour and even eliminate it, by making small changes to the processing parameters (yet keeping the steaming process). When the same consumers were given this Green Tea they preferred it to the earlier one and some of them have started developing a taste for these teas.
I then looked at some Western European consumers and gave them the two different teas and they too preferred the new Green Teas. This confirmed the consumer preference in India and the western world, and explained, to some extent, as to why the growth of Green Tea was not much in these areas.
Now we are seeing a lot of growth in the demand for these Green Teas. I also got some Green Teas manufactured in this manner in Indonesia and these too have been very well received. Suddenly the high end consumer and the health conscious consumer is finding a tea that is very healthy and that he likes the taste of. And I have replaced 7 to 10 cups, out of my daily intake of black teas, with Green Tea.

Harki Sidhu