MSU scientists will continue to bolster food production in Central Asia with our partners

Good news -- our team recently received word that US-AID IPM CRSP has renewed our funding at $1.25 million for the next five years.

We'll be promoting better pest management in growing key food crops: tomatoes, potatoes and wheat (for producing bread like the lovely loaf in the image).

Part of the goal will be to help our Central Asian partners build local expertise. Graduate students and key agricultural leaders will come to Michigan State University (MSU) and the University of California-Davis for short and long term training.

I'll be posting more details.

View photo gallery of our work at our web site.

You are invited to a dinner in your honor

Ceremonies tell others about us. They honor, entertain and seal friendships. Throughout our visit, the Kyrgyz people have welcomed us with several variations of their traditional ceremonial dinner. Typically, these are hosted by dignitaries – our hosts included the Minister of Agriculture and the President of the Kyrgyz Agrarian University. The dinners are held in pleasant locations and table settings are carefully designed with food and dishes creating a lovely display. Many salads made from fruit and vegetables along with cold meats and cheese fill the table. Pieces of round bread made in tandori-style ovens are eaten throughout the meal. Waiters keep bowls filled with either green or black tea.

The first course is usually a clear broth soup seasoned with dill and filled out with large pieces of meat and perhaps vegetables. The next courses include cuts of meat and perhaps noodles or rice. The highest honor is the final meat course which is mutton. The boiled sheep’s head is served to the top-ranking guest and the other honored guests are served large cuts of meat. Fruit or something sweet completes the meal.

The host welcomes and offers a toast for the guests and dinner. This begins a steady stream of toasts throughout the meal as specific guests are invited to speak. Interspersed between the toasts, talented entertainers sing and dance displaying Kyrgyz customs. At times, guests are encouraged to join in. By the end of the evening one knows the Kyrgyz are creative, fun-loving and generous people. We are glad to be among them.

The dinner hosted by the president of the Kyrgyz Agrarian University.
The Minister of Agriculture presents IPM Central Asia CRSP Project leader Karim Maredia with a gift.

A singer and dancer at the minister's dinner.

Bright students, bright future

During lunch, seven students from the Kyrgyz Agrarian University answered my questions about their studies, interest in agriculture and family life. Most are in their third year of study and excited to be focusing on their area of specialty having finished core classes. They enjoy the student farmer field school because they are actively farming with their friends and contributing to something productive. One works for an agricultural publication and hopes to continue in that area after graduation. Another wants to attend graduate school in horticulture, while a third will specialize in forestry. The others are more generalists studying agronomy. All grew up in farm families with two to three siblings. Our interpreter noted families were larger a generation ago. Their family farms are small (most about 2 hectors) and few grow enough crops to sell beyond local use. Typically, they have a small number of livestock.

All of the students have cell phones and enjoy using them. They did not think their parents listen to farm radio or television shows. Some spoke a little English. They seemed to be enjoying interacting with the IPM CRSP team and were very engaged in the diagnostic training, asking questions and earning certificates of completion. The future of Kyrgyz agriculture would be in good hands with these enthusiastic learners.

MSU's Dieudonne Baributsa awards the students with IPM scouting materials from the IPM CRSP Project for their work in the farmer field schools.

Diagnosis, please

As in medicine, correctly diagnosing the problem is a critical first step in IPM. A farmer who unknowingly plants diseased tomato seedlings in her field, has a crop doomed to an early death or poor yield. Unfortunately, since many plant diseases are initially undetectable to the human eye, this situation is all too common in Central Asia.

In the past 20 years, molecular techniques have revolutionized pest diagnosis in the developed world. Unfortunately, this progress coincided with the collapse of the Soviet Union and severe economic limitations for the new Central Asian republics. As a result, many of these molecular techniques are unavailable in the region.

A key part of our trip was to hold a two-day pest diagnostic training workshop which was largely organized by Dr. Sally Miller (the Ohio State University), a plant pathologist who has worked on diagnosis of plant diseases in a several international settings. Sally was assisted by the IPM CRSP team and by Dr. Barry Jacobson (Montana State University), also an international expert in disease diagnosis. Students at the workshop learned how to couple modern molecular techniques with classical symptom-based diagnosis. The result means more rapid and accurate detection leading to the right course of action and – most importantly – more food and income for Central Asian farmers.

MSU student organic farm inspires Kyrgyz spin-off

The Central Asia IPM Forum has begun. One fascinating presentation was by Dr. Murat Aitmatov and his students from the Kyrgyz Agrarian University. Murat visited Michigan State University in 2007 as a guest of Drs. George Bird and Walt Pett (MSU Entomology) who co-lead the extension and outreach component of the IPM CRSP project. At MSU, Murat visited the MSU Student Organic Farm, and according to George Bird, nearly filled a notebook with drawings and notes on what he saw. From what he saw at MSU, Murat created what he calls “Student Field Schools,” an adaptation of farmer field schools he uses to educate Kyrgyz farmers.

In a Student Field School, a small group of students plant small plots of produce and meet weekly to learn and practice best Integrated Pest Management (IPM) techniques. This includes selecting the best cultivars, growing pest-free seedlings for transplant, weekly scouting, manipulating natural enemies (beneficial insects and other sources), and harvesting and selling the fruits and vegetables.

One very unique aspect of the project was a direct result of our collaboration. While at the MSU Student Organic Farm, Murat learned of Dr. John Biernbaum’s (MSU Horticulture) work on growing season extension using plastic hoophouses. These allow growers to produce vegetables for most months of the year. Murat and his students have modified this technique for Kyrgyzstan’s environment. They use the heat from composting manure to warm small hoophouses they create from bent willow sticks and plastic sheeting. In this way, they are able to grow vegetables even when there is snow on the ground. This afternoon, we are looking forward to visiting these schools and seeing first-hand this offspring from the MSU student farm. I hope to have pictures to post from that field trip.

Communicating at the multi-cultural ICARDA

We've met people from around the globe working and visiting ICARDA from Sudan, Iraq, Morocco, Australia, the Netherlands, and Columbia. English is the common written language. Since I am an IPM communications manager, I had an appointment with Dr. Zaid Abdul-Hadi, the head of the unit that includes publications. ICARDA has good resources: poster printers, photographers, a science writer and an art department. Many publications are printed in Arabic and English. The binding of the two translations is opposite, as Arabic is read right to left and English, left to right. English readers would find the Arabic pages are in reversed order.

I asked about Internet use, thinking perhaps connecting to web sites via cell phone might be common. Cell phone use has been quickly adopted in the region. For example, I am told prior to the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraq had no cell phones. One year later, Iraqis were using over 7 million cell phones. However, like most Americans, few use phones for web browsing and data.

In-flight

Traveling from Michigan to Amsterdam to Istanbul takes about 14 hours. I saw a few signs that people are concerned about the H1N1 virus. A handful of people were wearing masks in the Detroit airport. Before the plane landed in Istanbul, we were given forms to fill out stating whether or not we have flu symptoms. After we landed and people were standing in the aisles, the flight attendant announced we couldn’t disembark until they received a form from every person – and we were missing 25 forms. Slowly, 25 more trickled up to the front of the plane.

We had a 10-hour lay-over in Istanbul and chose to find a place to sleep.

Istanbul is beautiful from the air.



The round domes of mosques and tall, thin minarets are visible in the cityscape.

Catching up the immune system

We work with Integrated PEST Management (IPM). It doesn't pay to be lax with immunizations if you don't want to personally meet pests when you travel. This morning I got shots, pills or testing for tetanus, hepatitis A&B, typhoid and TB. Heard lectures on rabies and various influenza. Hurray, no yellow fever to be concerned about on this trip. All of this at today's visit to the travel clinic. We will take extra precautions with mosquito repellent.

About that pest management, for this team we address mostly insect pests of agriculture, but sometimes plant diseases, weeds and nematodes are part of the project.
Posted by JL.

Preparations ... and about us

I have the opportunity to travel with the Central Asia IPM (Integrated Pest Management) group to a regional 2009 IPM forum in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. I am the web designer for the project at ipm.msu.edu/central-asia.htm. Through my work as a communicator at Michigan State University, I've Twittered, Facebook-ed, adopted Delicious and other social media... but no blogging. Time to explore. (The image shows the project's home page.)

This project is funded by US AID, is an IPM CRSP (Collective Research Support Program) project and involves, in the United States, Michigan State University and the University of California - Davis. Additional blog entrees introduce our Central Asian partners.
Posted by JL.