Nyanzwa CVP Visit of Nov 10-09

2009 CVP
Companion Village Project
Visit Report
3rd visit Year One
November 10th, 2009


Village Nyanzwa
Pastor Luhwano Mwafute
Companion Easter Lutheran
Attendees 12 (Including two evangelists, NB; Pastor’s wife is an evangelist)
Weather for the past month Sunny and dry and rain just started
Reporters Ibrahim Wikedzi and Fred Bergsrud


We started a meeting with 12 people, the pastor was not there. He was at Iringa town for some church activities one of them was to email Easter Lutheran. His wife who is also an evangelist organized people who gathered in the church for a meeting. On our way to Nyanzwa we picked 4 people from one of the preaching point (Mgowelo) and after a meeting we pick up them back we dropped them off and it were really raining.

Purpose of the visit
• Planting and fertilizer application demonstrations
• To deliver seed and fertilizer
Topics
1. Greetings
Fred gave greetings from Easter Lutheran, the Saint Paul Area Synod and US Advisory Committee
2. Going through the handouts
o Fertilizer need template
o Plant population handout
o Fertilizer application handout
3. Demonstrations
It was demonstrated how to measure inter row spacing (60cm) and intra row spacing (20cm). Using a string and a hand hoe, it was demonstrated how to plant and apply fertilizer. One seed was put after every 20 cm and by using a bottle cup fertilizer was applied 5cm from the seed on each side.
4. Fertilizer and seed delivery
According to the soil analysis of the soil of this area, types of fertilizer recommended are NPK (10-18-24). The congregation was given 2 NPK bags (50 Kg) and Pioneer seeds 4 bags (2 Kg)


Comments/questions from audience
 They asked us based on the soil analysis conducted from the soil samples that were taken, how do we judge the Nyanzwa soils?
Less fertile with no organic matter and lucks three major nutrients i.e. Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium
 They asked what role does the idea of leaving crop residues without burning.
Increasing Organic matter that will help holds fertilizer in the soil and prevents it from washed out with water percolation, conserve moisture in the soil and soil erosion control
 They asked based on the spacing we are introducing don’t we see that plants will be close in such away plants will compete for moisture and nutrients? (Spacing recommended 60cm by 20 cm)
The amount of fertilizer recommended is also based in the plant populations. Spacing should help the corn to have good canopy at the time of one feet long, that should help to reduce the evaporation from the soil. We emphasized that we asking them to do things differently from the past and ask that they follow our instructions closely. The methods we are recommending have been tested and have worked in the past.
 They asked how often they should weed, if no weed should they keep weeding every month.
 We are recommended them to keep weeding every month by just chipping off the weeds, they should not consider to weed only when the weeds are 6 inches tall or more but weeding even if the weed is little or short less than 6 inches.

Conclusions/Recommendations
We highly recommended them to follow all agronomic practices we are and will be teaching them, and they will see success in their crop production, we referred to other CVP’s like Kilolo, Nduli etc. which harvested 11 bags and 3 tins and 9.5 bags of shelled corn from half acre plot respectively.