Itungi Visit November 6, 2009

2008 CVP

Companion Village Project

Visit Report

1^st visit Year Two

November 6^th, 2009

Village	Itungi
Pastor	Damian Ngandango
Companion	Como Park Lutheran Church
Attendees Weather for the past month Reporters	11 (including 4 Evangelists) Sunny and dry Ibrahim Wikedzi , Fred Bergsrud and Phil Larsen

We started the meeting with only 4 people and after a while more people were getting in the church, and finally we had 11 people. We reminded them the training is for all people, so they should invite other people too. Meeting was conducted at the parish headquarters.

Purpose of the visit

· Planting and fertilizer application demonstrations

· To deliver fertilizer and seeds.

· Deliver a rain gauge.

Topics

1. Greetings

Fred gave greetings from Saint Paul Area Synod, Como Park Lutheran Church and US Advisory Committee.

2. Review of Handouts

o Fertilizer need template was filled and left to the box file of the congregation

o Plant population handout was reviewed

o Fertilizer application handout was reviewed

3. Rain gauge

When a rain starts, they should start using and recording. We explained the advantages of taking rain measurements, where to place the rain gauge and how and when to take the readings.

4. Demonstrations

We demonstrated inside the church because it was raining, so we couldn’t go to the plot for demonstration. We reminded them to remember to do a crop rotation, so they are supposed to plant corn in the plot they planted beans last year and plant corn in the corn plot.

It is there second year training, we did a refresh training on how to measure inter row spacing (60cm) and intra row spacing (20cm). Using a string and a hand hoe, it was how to plant seeds and apply fertilizer.

Fertilizer and seed delivery

According to the soil analysis of the soil of this area, types of fertilizer recommended are NPK (10-18-24) and CAN (27-0-0). The congregation was given NPK 2 bags. They were told to apply this fertilizer at the time of planting. CAN will be delivered later for second fertilizer application.

Comments/questions from audience

Ø They asked more explanations about how the fertilizer is placed 5 cm on each side of the seed during planting.

We explained to them and demonstrated, even though we couldn’t do it on a plot because it was raining.

Ø They have been using spacing of 30 cm between seed to seed (intra row), should they start using our recommendation 20 cm seed to seed?

The Answer is YES, if the can be able to buy the required amount of fertilizers as we recommend. If not they should go for a different spacing recommended based on the relation of plant populations and amount of fertilizer. (Note; we gave them a handout showing Plant populations in relation to amount of fertilizer applied)

Ø A comment from Pastor Damian, Last year when we recommended the spacing 60 cm by 20 cm, they didn’t know if the spacing is supposed to relate to the amount of fertilizers applied.

Ø They asked about Government Agricultural officer’s training Vs Institute of Agriculture training on the issue of farm preparation on not burning crop residues, government officers are telling them to burn crop residues.

We told them that is why we are training them by demonstration so that they can see it practically the advantages of not burning and other agronomic practices. They really agreed with us, when we explained about organic matters increase due to crop residues.

Ø We asked them if any one have started practicing what we have been training them since last year 2008?

We were told that some have started this year; one example is three young men who decided to work as a team to practice what we have been addressing.

Conclusions/Recommendations

They really appreciate the idea of using strings during corn planting. We highly recommend them to follow all agronomic practices we are teaching and they will be successful in the crop production, we referred to other CVP’s like Kilolo which harvested 11 bags and 3 tins of shelled corn from half acre plot. They harvested 6 bags of shelled corn from half acre plot.

They are working on raising fund for a SACCOS program , so far they have about 40 members that are required to pay an entry fee of 5,000/= TShs and buying bond so that they can raise a total of 1.6 Millions TShs. The first priority for loan will be Crop production and livestock keeping.