Bomalang'ombe Secondary School - CVP Report May 10-2010

2010 CVP
Companion Village Project
Visit Report
5th Visit Year One
May 10, 2010

School Bomalang’ombe Secondary School
Headmaster Michael Mkinga
Companion Trinity Lutheran, Still water
Attendees Headmaster, The Ag Teacher, Teacher on duty and form II&IV students
Weather Still rain but not often
Reporter Gabriel, Ibrahim, Rev. Mang’ulisa

We met with students in the newly constructed school hall. We had form II and form IV students. The headmaster told us that these students have been selected to take care of the demonstration plots

Purposes of the visit
• Instructing how to take yield measurements
• To deliver a tin and Liter for yield measurement

Topics
1. Rain records
We checked the records and write down in our note book for analysis.
2. Review of Handouts
o 5th visit handout was reviewed
o Yield measurement sheet was reviewed and two copies were provided for yields recording.
3. Demonstration
It was demonstrated how to take the yields in 10m in different three rows. We told them to record the number of plants (and of ears for corn) and volume in liters in the yield sheets provided. To get good comparison, we asked them to do the same in one of the neighbor’s plot(s).
Plots
Corn plot
We visited the corn plot. There is big problem of birds (crows). Two reasons might cause this
I. It is an isolated plot
II. Crows come to the school to eat food leftovers, now they have been moving to the plot to eat matured corn
We taught them the birds control techniques; - tying bright strips and hanging the dead crows to scare the birds. We told them that they should consider this as the learning subject (bird control subject). The Ag teacher told us that some of the bean plants have been affected by what seems like fungal disease; we told them that there chemical to control that disease, they would have consulted us at the beginning of the occurrence of the disease.
Bean plot
They are now harvesting beans and spread them on the ground for drying. Since it is still raining, we told them that that was good idea to avoid rotten of beans due to continuous rainfall

Comments/questions from audience
 The Ag teacher told us that they had the armyworms infestation but the pesticides we gave them in our 4th visit (Thionex) helped to control the pests. However he was wondering why the beans showed the symptoms of nitrogen deficiency in their early stage (yellow coloration) in spite of been applied NPK at the planting
We told them that that we are not sure what the problem was, but since the yellowish disappeared, the NPK applied at the planting supplied enough nitrogen needed.
 Students asked why other people use booster (liquid nitrogen) in their bean farm and why we did not use booster in the demonstration plot
We told them that booster (liquid fertilizer) is used to supply nitrogen to the bean plants that is why soon after applying it the bean leaves turn into deep green. Some people use booster instead of NPK or other nitrogenous fertilizer. Sometimes for some reasons bean plants cannot fix nitrogen as they are suppose to and they turn yellow, people will use booster to supply the nitrogen needed. However booster was not used in the demonstration plot because we used NPK which of course together with other P and K it also supplies N as booster.
 They asked why they were not required to do the second application of fertilizer in the bean plot as they did in the corn plot
We told them; beans do fix nitrogen using bacteria living in the bean root nodules.

Conclusions/Recommendations
We visited the demonstration plot, as we were at the plot we saw a group of crows descending to the plot. We told the students to start using bird scaring techniques as soon as possible. The headmaster told us the students will go to work in the farm after we leave. We delivered one tin and one liter for taking yield measurements.