ESTABLISHMENT OF RURAL ENTREPRENEUR ACADEMY
August 15, 2018TRAINING AND EDUCATION PROGRAMS
August 15, 2018
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HERBICIDES FREE INTEGRATED WEED MANAGEMENT
Background Sri Lankan tea industry Tea is the prominent agricultural crop which generate foreign income to Sri Lanka and also contribute 0.7% of GDP and has created over one million direct and indirect employments and 2.5 million dependents. According to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, in the year 2016, there are 204,809 hectares under tea cultivations, the total production of made tea has been estimated as 292.6 million Kgs and of that 288.7 million Kgs have been exported and earned Rs.184,778 million rupees. Tea plantations are categorized in to two major production sectors, the estate sector and the smallholding sector according to the extent cultivated. Out of the total land area under tea cultivation 59% is tea smallholdings which is around 121,740 hectares, and the rest 41% is large plantations manage by companies and the government corporations. There are 392,979 tea smallholders and the production contributes to 73% while large plantations contributes only 27% of total national tea production. Sri Lanka is renowned for its high quality tea and as the 2nd biggest tea producing country globally, has a production share of 10% in the international sphere, and one of the world's leading exporters with a share of around 23% of the global demand. Tea is a commercial industry and face several challenges such as negative impacts of climate change, low levels of productivity, rapidly aging tea bushes, high input costs and worker shortage, maintaining Sri Lanka's reputation as a high quality tea producer and meet new and stringent sanitary and other set by the importing countries and also the competition from other tea producing countries in the world market for market share. This situation has been further aggravated by the banning of some of the chemicals used in tea industry for weed management and pests and diseases control. As a result, the estate sector is in a crisis due to shortage of labour and also increasing cost of production, for example, the cost of production of Ceylon Tea has been increased over 800% within the past two decades. Weed management in tea The weed management in tea is the second highest cost component of tea production next to plucking of green leaves. Weed management is essential in tea as it contribute largely to determine the level of crop production and quality, and efficiency of inputs use (such as labour and fertilizer etc.,). Controlling of weeds is essential in commercial tea industry to maintain healthy crop and profitable business. In Sri Lanka, almost all the estate sector and small percentage (5% to 7%) smallholdings used weedicides (herbicides) to control the weeds in tea farms as the main technique before banning the herbicide called Glyphosate (N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine. In addition, the farmers use hoe and weed scrapers to remove weeds from the tea fields which is a destructive method as it damage the top soil structure and promote soil erosion during the rains. Sri Lankan government legally banned the imports and use of Glyphosate on 10th June 2015, under the Import and Export (Control) Act, No. 01 of 1969. The main cause behind the ban was that the long term use of Glyphosate is one of the reasons for deadly chronic kidney disease (CKDu) spreading in Sri Lanka. After that action, there was a huge debate and particularly the estate sector lobbied with the government to lift the ban, highlighting that their cost of production has gone up by using labour for manual weeding in tea and also face huge troubles to employ labour, as the estate sector experiencing a serious labour shortage. This situation created a discussion on the need of alternative non chemical sustainable weed management method in tea industry. The people and scientists talk supporting the banning of weedicides argued that the actual effectiveness of these weedicides in the commercial tea is greatly questionable against the subsequent emergence of various, unintended and unforeseen detrimental side effects, debilitating the eco-systems, human health and also the tea bushes in addition. Therefore the affectivity of permitted weedicides recommended for weed control in commercial tea plantations has become greatly uncertain, due to the intense emergence of herbicide tolerant weed species on treated areas causing persistent economic crop loss (Peiris et al 2015). Herbicides free integrated weed management (HFIWM) introduced by GEF-tea project by RA and ASLM In 2014, as one component of the GEF- Tea Project “Promote Sustainable Land Management (SLM) to mitigate and reverse land degradation in tea production landscapes” test validation sites were established to implement HFIWM practices in tea, as an alternative for chemical weed management and manual destructive weed management method such as scraping of weeds. This techniques was first introduced by Mr. Harkirat Singh Sidhu, RA Programme Coordinator in India and presented the magnificent benefits it can generate for the profitability of the farm as well as environmental and social benefits in 2013. The HFIWM technique was formally introduced to Sri Lanka by Ms. Reiko Enomoto, training manager of RA by inserting this HFIWM techniques to the training materials which were developed and used in Sri Lanka to train trainers and farmers on sustainable tea production. Test Validation Sites Four pilot test validation and training sites were set up for Herbicide Free Integrated Weed Management (HFIWM). The test validation sites were setup to represent three tea growing regions in Sri Lanka up country, mid country and low country considering the different geographic and climatic conditions in those three regions. Mainly the differences in elevation from sea level, soil, rainfall and weed species etc. 1. 1.5ha of VP tea field was selected for the initiative at Hapugastenna estate, Maskeliya. Implemented by the Hapugastenna Estate and monitored by Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya. 2. 138ha large farm Hunuwala Estate Pelmadulla was selected, but failed due to severe drought prevailed in the area in 2016. 3. 6 ha of VP tea and 5ha of seedlings tea was selected in Dambetenna estate Haputale. Implemented by Dambetenna estate and monitored by Faculty of Agriculture, University of Sabaragamuwa. 4. Ekarella Estate, Kahawatta, 68 hectares of seedlings and VP mix estate The purpose of setting up of the test validation HFIWM sites in different tea growing regions is to collect scientific data and tabulate the cost and benefits of HFIWM practices and also to use this sites as research as education purposes. The goal was to introduce this HFIWM practices to the farmers who engage in tea farming in Sri Lanka as a solution to the issues face by the farmers as well as national issue created by banning herbicides. Financial assistance was provided by GEF Tea project and also the companies who took part in this initiative contributed financially in addition to the in-kind contributions. The technical assistance were provided by RA and ASLM and the monitoring, scientific data collection, analysis were done by the Universities with the support of the farm managements of the selected farms. Methodology of weed management Weeds could be defined as plants which arise in all types of agriculture other than desired crops (Auld, 2004). When the weeds grow in the farm and compete with the desired crop for resources and create problems or negative impacts on the crop become problematic. Because, the problematic weeds can cause huge economic losses and also can generate negative impacts on the quality of the crop, health of the soil and micro climatic conditions within the crop field as well as there may be health impacts on human. In Sri Lanka majority of tea farms are operating in marginal conditions and poor weed management may be resulted in collapsing of the whole industry. It is certain that these problematic weeds trigger great financial loss in both estate sector as well as smallholdings sector, if proper and sustainable solutions are not introduced to control problematic weeds. The HFIWM technique introduced by the GEF Tea project would certainly be one of the best solutions as it can address most of the potential economic, environmental and social issues of no or poor weed management. The HFIWM has several steps: Identification of weeds The first step is identification of harmful or problematic or in other words hard weeds and innocent or soft weeds in the tea farm. The criteria used in identification of these two types of weeds are: Harmful weeds: - Have strong root systems - Compete with the tea for resources such as nutrients, water, space and sunlight - Difficult to kill using herbicides - When the herbicides apply spreads further - Some weed species release chemicals which are harmful for tea bush Innocent weeds (soft weeds): - Have weak roots system - Less compete with the tea compare to harmful weeds - Spreads covering the open soil - Helps retaining moisture in the soil - Protect and enrich the soil - Provide habitat for predators Some of the identified harmful weeds in tea farms in Sri Lanka (include invasive weed species also)
Some of the identified innocent weeds in tea farms in Sri Lanka
The second step was identified harmful weeds completely removed from the ground before them flowering by manual uprooting. The objective was removal of harmful weeds before they spared seeds in the field (which generate next generations of the harmful weed) and also the weeds spreads by the roots also uprooted and removed. By doing that continuously, the seed bank in the soil gradually reduced over the time. Since, no new seeds are adding to the existing seed bank in the soil, it was expected that the population of the identified harmful weed species reduce over time. Then, the weeded harmful weeds were collected and completely removed from the tea field and put them to a compost pit, so that to make compost fertilizer.
The third step was the identified innocent weeds species were kept in the farm with the tea bushes and let them grow and cover the soil especially open spaces within the tea fields in the farm. If there is an over growth of the innocent weeds, then they were slashed after flowering and spread the seeds put back to the tea field as organic matters which intron contribute to increase the amount of organic matters on top soil and provide nutrients and other services such as water retention etc., for tea bushes. By doing this it was expected to protect the soil from sun and rain, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enrich the top soil, provide habitat for predators of the pests in tea, also specially sequestration of part of the fertilizer apply to tea in these innocent weeds and add them back to the crop (about one third of fertilizer applied absorb by the tea bushes and rest wash off or evaporate).
By doing this practice, the harmful weeds gradually eradicate from the field and innocent and beneficial weed species are established with the tea and continue to provide services which are supportive to increase the crop yield (specially reduction of yield during the dry period significantly reduced), resists the extreme droughts, control pests population, maintain soil moisture during the dry period, enrich the top soil and reduce the need for adding chemical and organic fertilizer, improve the efficiency of inputs use, reduction of chemical fertilizer requirement and reduction of weed management cost.
The data from the other HFIWM test validation sites are being collected and analysis will be done after 15 months of the date established the test validation sites. Training manuals based on HFIWM was designed by the RA Training Manager and translated into local language. TOT sessions were held for 100 Tea Inspectors (TI) of Tea Smallholdings Development Authority (TSHDA) in Rathnapura, Galle, Matara and Bandarawela regions and for 71 representative of 6 private sector organizations. TOT’s were done at Tea Research Institute (TRI) branches of respective regions using the TRI fields for field training. Training modules and curriculums were developed to identify and train the TSH on site specific SLM practices and HFIWM. The TSHDA TIs’ trained more than 18000 TSH in the selected regions. Modules and curriculums developed by the project were used to train TSH supplying to Regional Plantation Company Tea factories and Private Tea Factories to promote RA certification. About 98% of 15,000 RA certified TSH are now following HFIWM. 30,000 TSH have been trained on HFIWM and expecting RA certification within first and second quarters of 2018. These trainings were constantly monitored by the Project. In the districts of Matara the TSH trained by the TSHDA are asserting their requests to the private factories to obtain RA certification for them. Out of many tea smallholder farmers who adopt HFIWM method to control, one of the smallholder’s case presented as an example of indirect results of HFIWM. Mr. Saman Udaya Kumara, the manager of the tea plantation which has 17 hectares was trained on HFIWM and he has successfully practiced that in the plantation in 2014 and has achieved very good results. Fertilize usage has been reduced by 72%, weed management cost has been reduced by 32% while the yield has been increased by 900Kgs in 2015. In addition, large number of estates (large plantations) have adopted the HFIWM in large tea farms, but reluctant to reveal as that can be negatively effect on the initiative. Because, this HFIWM initiative got huge resistant from some of the chemical import and distribution companies, some academics who work closely with those companies, government officials who have the mandate on tea and some tea plantation company upper management. Impacts The President’s office and the Strategic Enterprise Management Agency (SEMA) invited ASLM to present its results on the HFIWM and other SLM practices. After the sharing session ASLM received calls from different parties who are against the banning of Glyphosate and criticized that RA is the leading organization behind the propaganda to ban herbicides. However, the discussion initiated in the country on HFIWM supported indirectly to educate and popularise the concept on HFIWM. This initiative was followed by the forum discussion on the report submitted by the cabinet appointed subcommittee on the lifting the ban of Glyphosate. It was revealed that after the RA and ASLM presented the results of HFIWM test validations, Tea Research Institute (TRI) also has started a research on HFIWM. In addition, the HFIWM was internationally recognised and nominated for an award ………………………………………………………… If the current ban of herbicides continue, it is evident that more and more tea farmers will adopt HFIWM techniques to control weeds on their tea farms.
