Irindi-St. Timothy Luth., St. Paul-CVP Report-Mar 17-2011

2011 CVP
1st Visit, Year one
March, 17 2011


Village Irindi
Pastor Alex Kikoti
Companion St.Timothy Lutheran church
Attendees 21
Elevation 714 meters abs
Distance from Iringa town 72 KM
Ag Institute Stuff Nafeti, Gabriel, Roger and Rev. Lunodzo

Purpose of the visit
• Introducing the CV project to the congregation
• Taking the soil samples for soil analysis
• To deliver box file and a hand hoe
Topics
1. Introduction
Rev. Lunodzo Mang’ulisa introduces the project and stuff from the Institute and he also encouraged people to participate fully in the project. Roger gave the greetings from St. Paul Area Synod and St. Timothy Lutheran Church and went through the practices we teach and recommend on our demonstration plots.

2. Handouts
The handouts were distributed to all then reviewed
• CVP Plot record of events
• DIRA – Institute of agriculture agreement
• Chronological Plot Management of Crops Planted in November/December 2010
• CVP Instruction – 1st Visit

3. Agricultural background of this area
Irindi village has a population of about 1426 and about 302 families. The crops grown in the area include corn, bean, rice, groundnuts, sesame, cassava and papaya. The average yield of corn they normally get is 3 bags per acre and average yield of beans is 1 bag per acre. In terms of weather they do not get enough rain and it rains from December to March.


4. Soil sampling
Soil samples were taken in the area where the plot is going to be located. This was done after our meeting in the church, all the participants of the meeting also attended and learned on how the samples are taken. Soil samples from two different layers of the soil were taken from soil surface to 6 Inches and from 6 Inches to 12 Inches. The samples will be taken to the Laboratory for Macro and Micro nutrients analysis.




Comments/questions from audience
1. They wanted to know whether this will be first year or last year for this program to operate in Iringa Diocese.
This will be last year to those parishes that started the program in 2008 and will be the first year for those who are going to begin this year.

2. If the number of participants’ increases will the size of the demonstration plot increase or will it remain one acre half for corn and one half acre for beans?
The size of the demonstration plot will remain the same. It doesn’t vary according to the number of participants, we encourage people to attend our training and demonstration and learn the practices we teach them and use on their own farms.

3. How to control termites eating plants while in the field?
- Regular weeding can help to reduce the problem
- Alternatively you can still apply pesticide, though at the moment the one which was in use has been banned by the government and we are waiting for new release.

4. They asked if we are going to plant beans on the low land or dry land as they have salinity problems on dry land.
Beans will be planted on the dry land but we will test different varieties to find which tolerate salinity and we are going to obtain bean varieties from Uyole research Institute which is based in Mbeya region.

5. How are we going to overcome the problem of drought?
We are going to use/test drought resistant varieties and early planting will help to escape the period of drought.

Conclusions
We emphasized the importance of following instruction because the success of the program depends upon them following what we instructed.