Isimani - CVP Report Mar 15-2010

2010 CVP
Companion Village Project
Visit Report
1st Visit Year One
March 15th, 2010

Village ISIMANI
Pastor Naboth Chaula
Companion Holy Trinity, New Hampshire
Attendees 38 (Including a Village Chairman with 3 other government leaders)
Weather for the past month Really dry
Reporters Ibrahim, Gabriel, Roger and Pastor Lunodzo

Purpose of the visit
• Introduction of the program
• Deliver a hand hoe and box file
• Taking soil sample for analysis
Topics
1. Greetings
Pastor Lunodzo Mang’ulisa gave greetings from DIRA to the people and introduces staff of Institute of Agriculture. He encouraged people to attend seminars and follow the techniques taught, this will help them move to the next level in terms of farming.

Roger gave greetings from Holy Trinity, Saint Paul Area Synod and US Ag Advisory Committee.
2. Went through the handouts
o 1st Visit handout- DIRA and Institute of Agriculture Village Plot Agreement.
o CVP- Record of Events handout.
o Chronological Plot management of crops handout.
3. Demonstrations
We explained procedures of taking soil sample and the importance of doing soil analysis, then after we took the soil sample it was labeled and packed in small bags.


Comments
 The population of Isimani is 1750 people equivalent to 418 families. This village often experiences drought, so we will introduce Sorghum which is tolerant of drought. The major crops grown in this area are corn, cowpeas, tomatoes, peas, sunflower, potatoes and beans.
 The Village Chairman (Government leader) spoke up and really appreciates the CVP-program, the approach of training and the fact that we (Institute of Ag) keep coming Six times per growing season. He promised to call for Village meetings and allow the pastor to explain the Ag training program to the villagers.

 He is a business man, he buys and sells crops especially corn, beans and sunflower but farmers don’t have a good quality grains. So he is really thankful to the program and he decided to attend the training so that he will produce himself and buy from other farmers.

 Fertilizer training concept is good, because in the past they have been receiving and using fertilizers without having enough knowledge about it.

Questions from audience and answers
 They asked where they can get pesticides for termite control in their own farms.
We told them they can go buy from TFA (Tanganyika Farmers Association) shop in Iringa town.
 If they don’t have enough fertilizer as we recommend what they can do?
We suggested to them to use manure (compost) or to go for large spacing that will give them appropriate plant population per area.
 When we taught them not to burn crop residues, they said they don’t burn; some villagers normally come and graze their animals in their fields. What can they do to increase organic matter?
They need have some sort of agreement with pastoralists when they come and feed their livestock they can also bring manure later on. The village Chairman also explained to the audience that they have been charging money from livestock keepers, so from now on they will start asking them to bring manure in the field.
 They asked about corn spacing?
We told them the corn spacing we are recommend is 60 cm by 20 cm, but we will discuss and demonstrate more about this in the next visits.

Conclusions/Recommendations
We emphasized the importance of following instruction because the success of the program depends upon them following what we instructed. They promised to follow all the instructions.