Our extensive data punching and tracking, and with farmers traceability armed us to approach IPM Cumin 2022 with renewed vigour!  

What we learned during 2021 IPM cumin Crop harvest:
1. Chlorpyrifos is still our enemy number One with traces in farmer lots sometimes giving varying results of 3/4 times on cleaning. Some farmers who had not used chlorpyrifos this year (but used last year) still found residues in their harvest. Hopefully we should have better reports for them for 2022!
2. Some pesticide formulations were illegally carrying chlorpyrifos but not declaring on labels. We caught these and asked farmers to avoid next year.
3. Thiamethoxam is still widely used for Cumin and gives problems with its metabolite Clothianidin on harvest. 
4. Usage of Acetamiprid and Imidacloprid is gladly reduced. 
5. Many farmers who had used pesticides and could not avail premiums we paid to IPM harvest, were enthusiastic to join our program. They now trust the program! That’s a big thing!

Towards the end of December we visited our IPM growing regions with our team. We spoke to many farmers on our panel and newer farmers joining our program and explained them on below aspects:

1. To strictly avoid the risky formulations on which chlorpyrifos was found.
2. Avoid dimethoate considering new EU MRLS
3. Suggesting organic formulations on which we had good success on our pilot trials for cumin last year.
4. Circulating knowledge series from farmers who produced organic last year. Videos from these farmers making sustainable organic manure and pesticides in their own farms have been shared in our network. A local growing organic cumin is a big motivator.