Trainer’s Guide for Tea small grower training

Table of content

Module 1 Soil management

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Activity 4

Introduction ..........................................................................................

Group observation and discussion .......................................................

Photo presentation ..............................................................................

Weed identification exercise ...............................................................

Activity 5 Shade trees discussion .......................................................................

Activity 6 Poster distribution ................................................................................

2

2

5

6

10

11

Activity 7 Feedback from the participants ............................................................ 11

Page no.

Preparation prior to the training ...........................................................................

Program of the day ................................................................................................

Materials to bring ..................................................................................................

1

1

1

Module 2 Pest management

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Activity 4

Introduction ..........................................................................................

Pest identification exercise ...................................................................

Story-telling .........................................................................................

Predator identification exercise ...........................................................

Activity 5 Group discussion ................................................................................

Activity 6 Poster distribution ................................................................................

13

13

15

17

19

20

Activity 7 Feedback from the participants ............................................................ 20

Page no.

Preparation prior to the training ...........................................................................

Program of the day ................................................................................................

Materials to bring ..................................................................................................

12

12

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Module 1 Soil management

1

Preparation prior to the trainingVisit several farms in advance to select one where you will conduct the training. Select a farm based on the

following criteria.

Choose a farm where you can observe various evidences of soil erosion, as they serve as the starting point

of the discussion of the day.

The farm should have enough open space somewhere on the premise whereby the trainer and the

participants can gather and discuss.

The farm should be located at a place where the participants can easily reach, and should not be too away

from the participants’ homes.

Talk with the farm owner in advance so that he/she agrees to receive the participants on the day of training at

his/her farm, and inform the farm owner in advance that the trainer and the participants will be discussing about

the problems of soil erosion that can be observed in the farm.

Program of the day

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Activity 4

Introduction of the trainer and the objectives of the training

Observation of the soil condition of the farm and discussion of the findings

Presentation with the photos on the good practices of soil management

Weed identification exercise

Activity 5 Observation of shade trees and discussion of their benefits

Activity 6 Distribution of the poster and recap of the day using the poster

15 minutes

45 minutes

30 minutes

45 minutes

15 minutes

15 minutes

Activity 7 Feedback from the participants 15 minutes

DurationTopics

Materials to bringPhoto package for the soil management module

Poster “Soil Life Transformation”, enough quantity to give one to each participant

2

Activity 1 IntroductionIntroduce yourself as a trainer for the Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded project, entitled “Mainstreaming

Sustainable Management of Tea Production Landscapes.” This project aims to train tea small growers in India

(Assam and Darjeeling), Sri Lanka and China (and later on in Vietnam) on the topics of sustainable land

management.

Bring across the point that this is not a small village-level initiative, but is an international initiative across the

four Asian countries to promote sustainable management in tea production landscapes.

Explain that today’s topic is soil management. It is a crucial element of the sustainable land management, as

healthy and fertile soil is the fundamental basis of tea production. Sustainable soil management contributes to

tea productivity, and helps conserve the environment, water sources and biodiversity on the farm. Let the

participants know that the following topics are all related to soil, and will be discussed in today’s training

session.

Soil erosion

Soil compaction

Organic matter in the soil

Drainage

Weed management

Activity 2 Group observation and discussionTell the participants that the whole group is now going to walk around the farm together. Ask the participants to

look for any spot whereby the can observe an evidence of soil erosion. As the group walk around together, if

any participant find an evidence of soil erosion, he/she should call the attention of the rest of the group so that

the trainer and all the participants will come and look at it together.

Start going around the farm. Anytime when a participant says that he/she found an evidence of soil erosion, call

the rest of the group around the spot and look at it together. As the group looks at the spot, ask the following

questions.

What is happening to the soil at this spot?

What do you observe? (e.g. drain sides

collapsing due to soil erosion)

What has caused this problem? (e.g. excessive

herbicide spraying on drain sides)

What would be the consequence of leaving

the soil under this condition? (e.g. the tea

bushes will eventually collapse into the drain)

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2

3

What should be done to prevent it from

happening? (e.g. the drain sides need to be

protected with vegetative cover)

Mulching

Cover crops

Shade trees

Climate change resilience

4

Make sure that you ask these

questions first, so that the participants

have a chance to think by themselves

and come up with their own answers.

DO NOT explain the answers without

asking questions and letting the

participants respond first.

Key point of training

3 2

The participants may notice the following types of soil erosion on the farm. At each spot, gather the group to

hold a discussion. Make sure to stop at all the spots that you have previously found in your preparatory visit.

Drain sides are collapsing

into the drains.

Excessive herbicide spraying

has caused the soil to be

exposed to rains, winds and

workers that pass by.

If you leave the soil under this condition, the soil keep on eroding into the drains and you will keep on

losing the precious soil on your farm.

Every time when it rains, the runoff water will take away the soil further.

Due to the loss of soil, the productivity of tea will be affected.

Some tea bushes will eventually collapse into the drains.

The drain will be filled up with eroded soil and will lose its function.

1

3

2

4 Drain sides need to be protected with vegetative cover. The roots of certain weeds can hold the soil and

prevent it from eroding. Drain sides do not need to be so “clean”, completely free of weeds. We should

keep the weeds on drain sides at lower height through manual weeding.

Mulching materials, such as leaves

and small branches, are washed

into the drains.

1 Eroded soil is accumulated

in the drain and filling it up.

Fallen leaves from shade trees

and tea plants, pruned tea

branches, certain weeds after

sicklying, all serve as mulching

materials that can cover the soil

and protect the soil surface from

erosion.

They should be kept on the soil

surface as mulch, and should

not be washed away into the

drains.

Banks are being eroded, and

the roots of the tea plants are

getting exposed.

Excessive herbicide spraying

on the banks has made them

susceptible to erosion by

rains and winds.

Eventually the soil erosion on

the banks can develop into

landslides, and you may lose

a large section of your farm,

and your productivity would

be affected significantly.

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2

3

The banks should not be sprayed with herbicide, the weeds should be kept at low height through

manual weeding

Plant grasses on the banks to hold the soil. Certain grasses, such as Vetiver, Elephant grass, Napier

grasses, have strong roots and can hold the soil effectively.

4

If there is any plot of young tea on the farm, you may observe the following condition of the soil.

The soil is left bare on the

young tea plot. The soil

surface is affected by erosion

and compaction.

Excessive herbicide spraying

has left the soil with no cover.

1

2

3 When the soil is left bare on young tea plots, crickets will turn into pests. They don’t

have any weeds to feed on, so they start feeding on the laterals of young tea plants.

The cricket damage will affect the growth of your young tea plants.

3 You need to leave certain amount of weeds so that the crickets have plants to feed on.

When the young tea plants are still small, you can conduct inter-cropping with leguminous crops, such

as lentils and soya, so that the vacant areas are occupied, and these leguminous crops can fix

nitrogen in the soil.

4

Activity 3 Photo presentationGather the participants at one open space, and have them stand in a circle so that everyone can look at you

well. Bring out the photo package for the soil management module, and show them to the participants one by

one.

These photos are examples of good practices of soil conservation. Have the participants reflect back on the soil

erosion problems they saw on the farm and the discussions they had. These photos should be used to confirm

the importance of good practices that have been discussed in the previous activity, and help the participants’

understanding with visual images.

Photo package on soil management

Drain sides protected with vegetative cover

Young tea plants inter-cropped with leguminous crop

5

Soil covered with weeds after sickling

Counter planting

Bank protected with vegetative cover

Bank protected with planted grasses

6

Activity 4 Weed identification exercise Ask the participants to go around the farm to collect different kind of weeds. Each person should collect several

different types. Give them around 10 minutes to find and to bring back the weeds.

Once the participants come back with weeds in

their hands, ask them to form a circle. Then give

them the following instruction:

There are two categories of weeds. One is

noxious weeds. They grow aggressively, and

they compete with tea for nutrients. The other

category is soft weeds. Their growth is not that

vigorous, and they can co-exist with tea. Now,

please come up one by one, and put noxious

weeds to my right and soft weeds on my left.

As the first volunteer comes up, ask him and the

rest of the group to identify the name of the

weeds he has in his hand. They can say the

local names. Then for each weed, ask “Is XXX a

noxious weed or soft weed?” If the participants

agree that it is a noxious weed, let the

participant put it on your right. If they agree that

it is a soft weed, let him/her put it on your left.

Continue the exercise until all the participants classify the

weeds into the two categories.

There can be weeds that the participants may not agree whether they are soft or noxious. There are “relatively

soft weeds” (e.g. Bagracot) that are more aggressive than the other soft weeds. You can allow the participants

to put them into a separate pile.

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Cyperus pilosus

Setaria palmifolia

Digitaria sanguinalis

Imperata cylindrica (Thatch)

Cynodon dactylon(Murwa grass)

Eupotarium odoratum(Siam weed)

Polygonum chinensis

Mikania

Mimosa pudica

Ferns

Folloing are common noxious weeds that can be found on tea farms. If the participants did not categorize any of

them correctly, guide them so that they understand that these are noxious weeds.

Folloing are common soft weeds that can be found on tea farms. If the participants did not categorize any of

them correctly, guide them so that they understand that these are soft weeds.

Ageratum

Borreria hispida (Bagracot)

Axonopus compressus (Flat grass)

Glechoma hederacea (Ground Ivy, Creeping Charlie)

OxalisParthenium hysterophorus

(Parthenium weed, Carrot grass)

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Once all the weeds are categorized into noxious weeds and soft weeds, discuss the participants about the

differences in characteristics between the two by asking the following questions.

When you spray herbicide, have you noticed that some

weeds come back more quickly than the others?

Which category do such weeds belong to?

Have you ever noticed that some weeds develop

resistance again herbicide? Which category do such

weeds belong to?

If you keep on spraying the same herbicide repeatedly,

then what will happen?

1

2

3

Key point of trainingHere again, make sure you DO NOT

say the answers, until the participants share

their opinions and experiences.

After the participants share their opinions and experiences, explain the following points. If any of them had

already been mentioned by the participants, recognize their contributions and reinforce their statement through

your explanation.

After spraying, noxious weeds come back more quickly than soft weeds. In the absence of soft weeds,

noxious weeds find more space to grow and proliferate. Therefore, each time you spray, you end up having

more and more noxious weeds on your farm.

Noxious weeds tend to develop resistence against herbicide, when one chemical is repeatedly used. Once

residence is developed, the chemical does not work on such noxious weeds any longer, and they continue

to proliferate more in the absence of other weeds. Such situation has been reported in reality with Murwa

grass (Cynodon dactylon) in tea farms in Assam.

Murwa grass infestation on a farm where Glyphosate was repeatedly used

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Once the participants have understood the consequence of repeated herbicide spraying, ask the next

questions.

What can be done to reduce noxious weeds on a farm? 4

Let the participants come up with their ideas and express them first. Then explain the following points. For each

point, keep on asking further questions in the following manner.

Noxious weeds should be uprooted so that they can be

eliminated with roots. As long as the roots stay in the soil,

they can revive easily. Therefore, it is best to control them by

uprooting and taking them out of the farm.

What are the other advantages and benefits of soft weeds?

When you leave the soil to be bare, noxious weeds find space to grow and proliferate. By covering the

soil surface with soft weeds, the spread of noxious weeds can be contained.

Soft weeds tend to grow slowly and laterally, covering the soil

surface. As long as you keep them at low height with regular

weeding, they do not compete with tea for nutrients.

Soft weeds, when

sickled, they die easily

and take time to come

back. The sickled soft

weeds can be laid over

the soil surface and used

as mulch. They get

decomposed and add

organic matter to the soil.

Soft weeds host predators. By

having more soft weeds, you will

have more predators on the farm

that can control pests.

At what timing should the noxious weeds be uprooted? 5

It is important to uproot them before they flower and seed.

Once they flower and seed, even if you uproot the current

ones, their seeds will germinate and grow back.

What should be done with the uprooted noxious weeds? 6

The uprooted noxious weeds should not be kept on the

ground of the farm, as they can revive. They should be made

into compost. Composting generates heat, so their seeds will

killed in the process. Through composting, these weeds can

be converted into an organic fertilizer that benefit your farm.

(As you explain this point, you can show them the composting

photo in the photo package.)

Can soft weeds play a role in reducing noxious weeds? 7

8

9

At what timing should sicklying of soft weeds be conducted?9

Wait until they flower and seed before you conduct sicklying.

By letting them seed, they will slowly proliferate and occupy

more areas of your farm. By repeating these practices, you

can gradually replace noxious weeds with soft weeds.

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Activity 5 Shade tree discussionAsk the participants to look around the farm and observe its shade trees.

Then ask the following questions.

What are the benefits of these shade trees to the soil? 1

After they share their opinions, explain the following points.

Fallen leaves from shade trees add organic matter to the soil.

Fallen leaves from shade trees help cover the soil surface as mulch, and protect it from erosion.

Shade trees help to retain moisture in the soil, and this moisture help tea plants in cases of drought.

What are the other benefits of these shade trees? 2

Shade trees protect tea from strong sunlight and help you sustain its productivity.

When you plant fruit trees as shade trees, their harvest brings you extra income.

Certain trees attract birds, which are predators to many pests. By having more

birds on the farm, your pest problem reduces.

Activity 6 Poster distribution Give one “Soil Life Transformation” poster to each participant.

Using the poster, conduct a recap of the day’s content.

Activity 7 Feedback from the participantsThank the participants for their participation, and ask them for feedback.

What did you like about the training?

What new did you learn today?

Do you plan on changing any practice on your farm?

Any recommendation for improvement for the next training?

As much as possible, note down their feedback so that these can be used to understand some results of the

training and areas of improvement for the future training.

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Module 2 Pest management

12

Preparation prior to the trainingVisit several farms in advance to select one where you will conduct the training. Select a farm based on the

following criteria.

Choose a farm where you can observe various predators. Do not choose a farm which has been repeatedly

sprayed with insecticides and where the predators have been wiped out. Choose a farm that has been less

sprayed.

The farm should have enough open space somewhere on the premise whereby the trainer and the

participants can gather and discuss.

The farm should be located at a place where the participants can easily reach, and should not be too away

from the participants’ homes.

Talk with the farm owner in advance so that he/she agrees to receive the participants on the day of training at

his/her farm.

Program of the day

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Activity 4

Introduction of the trainer and the objectives of the training

Pest damage identification exercise

Story-telling and group discussion on the impacts of spraying

Photo presentation and predator identification exercise

Activity 5 Group discussion on how to increase predator population

Activity 6 Distribution of the poster and recap of the day using the poster

15 minutes

60 minutes

30 minutes

45 minutes

15 minutes

15 minutes

Activity 7 Feedback from the participants 15 minutes

DurationTopics

Note: The Activity 4 “Predator identification exercise” needs to be conducted early morning or after 3pm in the

afternoon. If it is close to mid-day, the predators are hiding and cannot be easily found. Therefore, you may

need to adjust the order of these activities to ensure that this exercise is conducted at an appropriate timing.

On the day of the training, spend some time at a farm before the training to collect tea leaves with pest

damages. (See the next page for the leaves to look for.) It is important to collect as many leaf samples as

possible in order to have an enriching exercise, so allocate sufficient time to collect damaged leaves.

Activity 1 IntroductionExplain that today’s topic is pest management, and tell the participants that the training will not just look at the

pests, but will put pests in the context of the whole ecosystem on a tea farm. When one understands the issue

of pests in the perspective of landscape, the way to address the pest problem becomes different.

Communicate the objectives of the training. By the end of the training, the participants should be able to:

Activity 2 Pest identification exercise Take out the leaves that have been damaged by pests, which you have collected in advance. Take them out one

by one, and ask:

Materials to bringPhoto package for the pest management module

Poster “The World of Predators”, enough quantity to give one to each participant

Identify pests and understand how each of them affect tea leaves

Identify predators for the pests and understand how each of them control pests

Understand the ecosystem of pests, predators and their habitats on the farm

Learn different ways to increase predator population on a farm

Learn sustainable management of pests through maintaining the natural predator-pest balance

Which pest has attacked this leaf? How did that pest make this damage? 1

The following types of damaged leaves should be presented for discussion:

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1. Looper damage

After the participants express their opinions, explain to them that these small holes on succulent leaves

have been made by small young loopers. As they grow, they start to eat maintenance foliage and are

capable of eating the whole leaf. By looking at the leaves, you can tell whether there are more small

loopers or more grown-up loopers on the farm.

After any participant says that these leaves have been attacked by loopers, ask them the next question:

What made the difference between these small holes and these big bites of the leaf edges? 2

2. Helopeltis damage

Explain that helopeltis is a sucking insect like a mosquito. When it sucks a leaf, it leaves these black

spots. When a leaf is recently attacked, the spots look rather transparent. These semi-transparent spots

can be observed in early morning. As the day progresses, they turn black.

Helopeltis is an insect that moves very fast. If you only observe black spots, they mean that helpeltis was

there before, but it does not mean that they are still around. They may have moved to another location of

your farm. If you decide to spray based on the level of black spots you observe, you may be spraying

where helopeltis is no longer around and are spraying in vain.

That is why it is very important to look for semi-transparnt spots, which is a signal of fresh attack, and it

means that helopeltis is still around the area. Your decision of pest control should be based on the level

of fresh helopeltis attack you can observe on the particular spot of the farm.

After any participant says that these leaves have been attacked by helopeltis, ask them the next question:

What made the difference between these black spots and these semi-transparent spots? 3

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3. Thrips damage After any participant says that these leaves have been attacked by thrips, ask them the next question:

How did thrips make this kind of damage? 4

Explain to them that thrips are also sucking insects. They suck leaves when they are still buds. Therefore,

when attacked buds open and grow, they grow malformed with vertical lines. These leaves cannot

conduct photosynthesis properly, and will affect the productivity of your farm.

15

4. Empoasca (green fly) damage

After any participant says that these leaves have been attacked by

green flies, ask them the next question:

How did green flies make this kind of damage? 5

Explain that green flies are also sucking insects, and they suck the

edges of young leaves. When the attacked leaves grow, the edges do

not grow properly, so the leaves start to curl.

5. Red spider mite damageExplain that red spider mite make colonies under the

bushes. They are not hoping on the surface of tea bushes,

as the predators are.

Therefore, it is not easy to conduct effective spraying on red

spider mites, as they can hide in their colonies under the

bush where spraying does not reach.

In order to confirm the participants’ understanding of this topic, ask them to go around the farm and bring back

several leaves that have been affected by any of these pests. Give them around 10 minutes to collect the leaves.

Once they come back, form a circle and ask each participant to show the leaves they collected and identify

which pest has attacked them. If any of them did not identify a damage correctly, ask the other participants to

identify it. By doing this exercise, you can reinforce their understanding.

Activity 3 Story-tellingGather in a circle in the middle of the field, where all the participants can observe tea bush in front of him/her.

Then what happens when you spray? 1

Then tell them the following, as if it is a story-telling.

Predators are usually hopping around on the surface of the tea

bushes, because they are looking for their food. On the other

hand, pests tend to be hiding in tea bushes, because they do not

want to be caught by the predators. For example, red spider

mites make their colonies and hide underneath.

Ask the participants:

16

After the participants express their opinions, continue the story-

telling.

When you spray pesticide, the predators which are hoping around

on top of the tea bushes, are the first ones to be killed. The spray

does not easily reach to the red spider mites, which are hiding

underneath their web. The spray can only kill the weak mites and

small mites.

Ask the participants:

Then what happens next? 2

After the participants express their opinions, continue the story-

telling.

And the big strong mites survive, and they come out of their

colonies and start to hop around. They realize that there is no

predator around.

The strong mites start to mate among them. As there are no

predators, they do not worry about protecting themselves with the

web. They start to use all their energy to produce offspring. They

can produce up to 3 times as many eggs as when there were

predators.

In the absence of predators, the pest multiples extremely quickly. As a result, you have more mites than even

before you sprayed.

Ask the participants:

Then what should we do instead of spraying? 3

After they express their opinions, explain them the following.

When a pest population grows, its predator population may also be growing. If there are enough predators, they

will start to eat the pests and bring them under control. The nature is keeping the delicate balance between the

pests and predators. When we disturb that balance and eliminate the predators, it often results in pest outbreak.

When you observe pest-damaged field in the field, you should also observe the presence of predators in the field.

If you notice that the predator population is also growing, then you can predict that the predators will bring the

pest under control, and it is better that you do not spray.

In order for you to take such decision, you need to be able to identify predators. Let us proceed to the next

exercise of predator identification.

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Activity 4 Predator identification exerciseBring out the photo package for the pest management module. Take them out one by one and ask:

Do you recognize this insect? Do you know its name? What does it do on your farm? 1

After the participants share what they know, tell them the name of the predator and explain its function.

They help you reduce the

number of aphids, mites,

thrips and other pests.

They eat soft-bodied insects,

such as caterpillars and many

other soil borne insects.

They kill your pests

by drilling them with

their spine. They eat thrips, mealybugs, aphids,

mites and other insects.

They eat thrips,

mites, aphids and

small caterpillars.

They eat all stages of

mealybugs.

They eat aphids, small caterpillars and

sometimes even thrips.

Ladybug beetle

Ground beetle

Spined soldier bug

Green lacewing

Minute pirate bugs

Mealybug destroyer

Hover fly

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After the explanation with the photos, ask them to go to the field to look for

insects and bring them back. Tell them to look for predators rather than

pests. However, if they are not sure whether an insect is a predator or not,

they can always bring it back so that the group can verify it together. Give

them around 15 minutes to collect insects.

Once the participants come back with a pest or a predator in their hand, ask

them to form a circle and ask each person to show the insect one by one.

As they show the insect, ask whether it is a predator or a pest, in order to

reinforce their ability to identify predators.

There are so many kinds of them, and they eat a lot and do a great job

in controlling all sorts of pests on your farm, including aphids, mites

helopeltis, caterpillars, etc.

Spiders

They eat helopeltis,

caterpillars, moths, green

fly, and other insects.

Praying mantis

They lay eggs into a

caterpillar, which will

later hatch inside the

caterpillar and the larvae

will feed on it.

Wasps

They eat helopeltis, greenflies,

thrips, and many flying insects.

Dragonflies and damselflies

Ground beetle = pest

Spider = predator

Moth = pest

Ladybug beetle = predator

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Activity 5 Group discussionTell the participants that now we are going to talk about way to increase the predator population on the farm so

that you can have an effective natural control of pests. In order to increase their population, it is critical to

increase their habitats. When they have more place to live, their population naturally grows. Ask the following

question:

1 Where are the natural habitat of predators? Where do they live? 1

After the participants express their opinions, explain the following.

The predators need a place to hide from their own predators, and

lay eggs in a place hidden from their predators. Therefore, natural

vegetation provides a place for them to hide safely and lay eggs.

Many of them also need a daily dose of pollen and nectar from

flowers for their energy and reproduction. Natural vegetation

growing in and around your tea is an important source of these

much required flowers.

1 How can we increase their natural habitats? Where on the farm can they live? 2

If you want their population to grow, you need to keep patches of

natural vegetation in various parts of the farm. For example, you

can keep some vegetation along drain sides, pathways and in any

areas that are not suitable for tea farming.

You should grow

natural vegetation

along water sources,

which also helps

conserve your water

sources.

13

Ask the participants:

1 How can we increase the bird population on a farm? 4

We have talked a lot about insects so far, but are there any other kind of predators?

If any participants says “Birds”, then give him/her an applause. Explain that birds are also

important predators of the pests. They eat caterpillars, helopeltis and some other insects.

Then ask the next question:

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Birds also need a place to hide from their predators and make their

nests. Trees provide a safe place for them to hide, make their

nests and raise their babies. When you cut down trees, the birds

lose their habitats and their population will go down, or they will go

away from your farm.

If you want to increase the population of the birds on your farm,

you need to plant diverse indigenous trees at different places on

your farm. Most indigenous trees create a better habitat for local

birds than exotic species. You can plant multiple species as shade

trees in the farm.

You can plant bird attracting trees in many places on your farm, like vacant areas, areas unsuitable for tea

cultivation, boundaries, roads, and near water sources, also as a protection for the water sources.

By increasing the habitats for the predators, their number will increase and your pest control improves. Let us

increase patches of natural vegetation on the farm, and let us plant trees. These actions will help keep a healthy

balance between the pests and the predators and keep your pests under natural control.

Activity 6 Poster distribution Give one “The World of Predators” poster to each

participant.

Using the poster, conduct a recap of the day’s content.

Activity 7 Feedback from the participantsThank the participants for their participation, and ask them for feedback.

What did you like about the training?

What new did you learn today?

Do you plan on changing any practice on your farm?

Any recommendation for improvement for the next training?

As much as possible, note down their feedback so that these can be used to understand some results of the

training and areas of improvement for the future training.