Mission 2014 Field Trip: Fieldwork...inside the house

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Fieldwork...inside the house

So today team Betel nut was sent to do the Household surveys of farmers. In case no one has explained the teams, we have been split into three teams based on the crops grown in Sirsi: Team Betel Nut, Team Pepper, Team Vanilla. These teams are subdivided if we need smaller groups depending on the type of fieldwork that we are doing. I am in Team Betel Nut A, with Elise Hens as our group leader. Our task for the day was to interview a local farmer with the help of an interpreter to find out exactly how he used his farmland, what type of crops he used, what livestock he had, how he created energy to cook with and any other questions that we had for a typical farmer. This data is used to find out exactly how natural resources are used in a village ecosystem and to decide if natural resources are being degraded compared to the data taken five years ago. We spent out about two hours talking to the family. The entire family was amazingly hospitable and offered us tea, papaya, dried banana chips, jaggery ( a sugar syrup like molasses), coconut, betel nuts and a tropical fruit that no one knew the English name for. They gave us a tour of the entire house and explained how they produce biogas from manure to power their stoves. They let me record our interview for the Radio class, and I will post a soundclip later tonight after I have logged all of the days sound. As we were getting ready to leave, we asked his son about what his plans were when he grows up. He is currently a freshman in high school by our grade standards. He said that he wants to go to college and study mechanical engineering. It was really amazing to find someone that shares the exact same plan I do and wants to become a MechE. The interview ended on a somber note though. The owner of the farm told us that he wants his son to leave the farm and study engineering to try and make a better life--farming just isn't a viable way for this family to make their living anymore. There was a recent protest to try and establish a minimum price for Betel nuts and with erratic weather the yield for crops has decreased dramatically. The farmers in this region are really struggling to hang on. This really causes one to question: What is the future of these small local farmers in Sirsi?

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About the Class

Mission 2014 is part of Terrascope, a learning program for MIT freshman. Each year the program begins with the class (12.000 Solving Complex Problems, Mission 201x). For this year their mission was to design a plan that will produce and distribute enough food to feed the planet over the next century, while ensuring that efficiency and equity are maximized with minimal disruption to the environment. With a world population of 9 billion expected by 2050 – and a billion people currently malnourished – we simply cannot continue with business as usual. An integrated cost-effective global strategy is needed to ensure sustainable and equitable food security. This must include a major re-thinking of agricultural practices as well as modifying the diets of much of the world's population. The students of 12.000 researched the problem and presented their solution in the form of a website as well as a public presentation followed by interrogation by a panel of experts. The website and presentation were a huge success.

About Terrascope

In the Spring semester many Terrascope students take part in one or more of three activities. These include: a hands-on class (1.016) where the students work on designing, building and implementing solutions to their problem; Terrascope Radio (SP360), where the students produce a series of radio programs on their topic including the field trip; and lastly the Terrascope field experience.

Each year alumni mentors play a very important part in the success of Terrascope. Many come to class and group meetings, communicate via email, and are generally extremely helpful if not a little bit jealous of being a MIT freshman! This year we are fortunate that three of our mentors are making the trip with us—Bob Gurnitz, Johnny Yang and Bhupendra Khetani

Acknowledgements

Many people have helped to make this trip possible. At Earthwatch the complex logistics have been coordinated by Grace Velardi and Alana Jones in the U.S. and the educational program by Rachel Batley in the U.K. At MIT our Terrascope administrator, Debra Aczel has spent countless hours guiding everyone through the acquisition of visas, answering many many questions, and remaining enthusiastic and upbeat. We all owe Debra a great deal of gratitude and hopefully the trip will go off flawlessly and she will be able to enjoy it and learn alongside the rest of us.

The trip this year is supported by the Baruch Foundation whose generosity ensures that another Terrascope class can take part in an international learning experience.