Ipalamwa Secondary School - CVP Report Oct 5-2010

2010 CVP
Companion Village Project
Visit Report Year One
2nd Visit
October 5, 2010

School Ipalamwa Secondary School
Headmaster Obeni Sawike
Companion Raquet Family Foundation, Mound
Attendees 4 teachers and about 50 students
Weather Cloudy and Dry
Reporters Gabriel, Nafeti, Don and Rev. Lunodzo

Purpose of the visit
• Measuring the demonstration plots
• Delivering rain gauge, seeds and fertilizers
• Demonstrating corn planting and fertilizer applications

This school is in the Ipalamwa village. The village is far away from Iringa town. Due to nature of the landscape (mountainous) and rough road which is not good during the rainy season, we had to make this visit before November. We carried fertilizers and bean seeds to deliver. The headmistress is new here. Last time we came to this school, we met another headmaster. We met Form Four Students doing their national examinations. We had the demonstrations with the few students from other classes.

Greetings
In the beginning of our demonstrations, Don delivered greetings from St. Paul Area Synod and US Institute of Ag advisory committee
Review of the handouts
Together with them we went through the handouts
o 2nd Visit Instructions
o DIRA and Institute of Agriculture Village Plot Agreement
o Plot Management FAQs
Demonstrations
o Rain gauge
We told them we need to know the annual rainfall of their area. They were instructed how to record rain using a rain gauge. One set of rain gauge was handed to the Ag teacher.
o Plots
We went with them outside and together we measured the 1acre plot using miter tape. We measured two ½ acres plots, one for corn and another one for beans.
o Planting and fertilizer applications
We told them the importance of having high plant populations and applying fertilizers. It was demonstrated how to plant seeds (Both corn and beans) and how to apply fertilizers.



o Seeds and fertilizers
We delivered 2 bags of NPK for corn and 2 bags of NPK for beans. We are planning to test two types of seed varieties here, PAN 691 and H6303. We managed to buy and deliver PAN 691. We told them the H6303 will be shipped to them once bought.

Crop Seeds Fertilizer
Varieties Amount Type Amount
Corn PAN 691
H6303 8kg4kg
Not yet delivered NPK 100kg (2 bags)
Beans Urafiki 40kg NPK 100kg (2 bags)

Comments
One of the member of the staff said he knows the local pesticides from the woods which is used to control the corn stalk bores. He asked us if we can take and research it.
We told him we are actually not doing the pesticides research right now therefore it will be difficult for us to work on that. However we will be happy to know it.
 They were wondering how are they going to control weeds with minimum tillage
We told them that with minimum tillage, one has to start to prepare the farm before the rain season starts. Monthly weeding helps to control weeds during the growing season.
 They asked us why we insist the usage of industrial fertilizers while they know these fertilizers destroy soil.
We told them that it is not true that the usage of fertilizers destroy soil, what destroys soil fertility is the bad usage of the fertilizers. If one uses the wrong kind of fertilizers or wrong amount of fertilizers he/she destroys the soil fertility. We took soil samples from their areas for the soil analysis. The soil analysis results and recommendations help to determine type and the amount of fertilizers that is suitable to their areas.

Conclusion/Recommendation
We told them that if the road will not be bad during the rainy season, we can make other visits in November and December. We will ship the corn seeds via bus once they are available in the local shops in Iringa town.