Sheep, Sugar, and Bug Spray

NAMASTE

Today we visited our last set of farms and just like that we are now entering our last phase of evaluation. Now that we have surveyed all of the farmers we are gathering, compiling and presenting farmer's recommendations to KSDA officials. In the past week we have had class with Professor Breeding where we decided on how we want to proceed with our next phase for methodology and evaluation. Al also created a logo for our entire project which will soon be turned into T-shirts and mugs. Pictures soon to come!

As our week progressed, we met new farmers, ate more food from the Shark Food Court, and, yes, took more selfies. But this time we took them with goats! They too like their share of pictures.

 

We also saw biodiversity at its best, learning about unexpected uses for several plants such as Neem, which is used for brushing teeth. Or at least that's what they told Al:

Additionally,  we have found that many of the farmers this week were non-beneficiaries of the Krishi Baghya irrigation scheme and are now interested in installing it after watching other farmers benefit from it.  We also met many farmers who were planning to install Krishi Bhagya as their last resort being that their income decreased over the last three years due to the drought. Our hopes are that our visit informed and motivated them to obtain this scheme.

Celebrating our last day in the field, our agricultural officer, Ananda, invited us over for a late lunch to try ragi ball. "Ragi" is another word for finger millet which is, you guessed it, another form of millet. His wife made a delicious home cooked dinner and it was amazing! Try not to drool too much while looking at our pictures. WARNING: There is chili in the food. Take a bit of it and you end up like Albert, licking sugar out of his palm to ease the spiciness.

On another note, we brought the discovery of mosquito repellent spray to the village of Nagasettihaili. Triple AAA for the win! As one of our colleagues needed some bug spray, the family was impressed by the bright green colored spray can and the sound it made. Curiously, they took the can, sprayed some on their hand, smelled it, and wiped if off in dislike (turns out that chemical spray that kills bugs is not a natural-smelling substance). The farmer's wife then sprayed it on her mother and instantly made her mother react frantically to the strange liquid that was sprayed in her direction. Take a look and see:

With all of our farm visits complete, we'll now focus our attention on processing and evaluating the data we've gathered to develop a coherent set of statistics describing who uses the Krishi Baghya scheme and how it changes in farm output and income. We will present these findings, along with recommendations from farmers for improving the scheme and our own policy recommendations after observing the farms in action, to KSDA officials at the end of this week before returning home.  These recommendations will also be part of the formal report we will submit as part of the practicum course.  All told, we've finished a culturally and personally enriching set of field visits and are now ready to get our brains back into academia for a solid evaluation of the irrigation scheme.