Wami-CVP Visit Report-May 1, 2012

2012 CVP Companion Village Project Visit Report 5th Visit 1st Year May 01, 2012. Village Wami pp of Ugesa Pastor/Evangelist Pascal Fyataga/Godwill Mwelela Companion The Pyrethrum Company of Tanzania Attendees 8 Weather Cloudy and cold Reporters Rev. Mangu’lisa, Pongolani and Venance. Purpose of the visit • To explain and demonstrate how to take yield measurement Topics 1. Went through the handouts o 5th Visit handout o Yield recording sheet 2. Demonstrations It is their first time to have the CVP; therefore we had to go over some important farming practices such as minimum tillage, crop residue management, inter – row and intra – row spacing, fertilizers and their application and continued weeding just before attempting the purpose of the visit. Then we demonstrated how to measure the 10 m row (in three different locations within the demonstration plot) for the yield determination; this was demonstrated by using a tape, counting & recording the corn plants and ears and marking the lines by breaking the tassels of corn. Plots information Corn looks too widely spaced with many gaps between plants. Some plants showed purplish color on the tips of the leaves which may be a symptom of phosphorous deficiency though this assumption they cannot be assured since they were given NPK to apply at planting. I wonder if the purplish color is due to varietal difference. They had not planted beans but were planning to plant it by mid-May. Pyrethrum plants survival was good (about 75%) although the seedlings planted were very small. When we asked them they said they got small seedlings from the nursery bed. Comments Since it is their first time to practice CVP and the corn seeds failed to germinate the first time, we fail to judge their activeness towards the program. The positive part is that Pastor Pascal Fyataga seems committed to work as it can be seen at Ugesa where he heads, and the performance is very good. Conclusion Parishioners were encouraged to try all the methods taught at the demonstration plot as much as they can. Even if they can’t afford to apply the same amount of fertilizer as in the demonstration plot, the advice was to maintain the inter – row space of 60cm and alter the intra – row space depending on the amount of fertilizer they have. They were reminded to weed their pyrethrum plot immediately.