Kilolo Parish - CVP Visit Report-May 10-2012

2012 CVP Companion Village Project Visit Report 5th Visit 4th Year May 10, 2012. Village Kilolo Parish Pastor Yona Kinganga Companion King of Kings Lutheran Church Attendees 4 Weather Dry and cool Reporters Don, Karen, Rev. Mangu’lisa 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 Kilolo Parish is in the fourth year of practicing CVP, we decided to ask the members of the congregation to explain how they would go about measuring yield. One of the members volunteered to explain as follows; that he would take a 10m piece of string and use it to measure a 10m row, count the number of plants and number of ears within the measured row and record them. He would then harvest the ears from the measured row, thresh them and measure the volume of the grains and record in liters. He said he would repeat the exercise at two more places. The explanation given by the member of the congregation was precise and accepted by us and other members as the right procedure to take yield measurement. Then we went to their plot to see. Plots information Their Corn looks good except in few spots where the plants reported earlier to have unusual root development were poorly developed. In these spots, plants had fallen down because the roots were poorly developed and could not support the plants but also they had small cobs. We also observed a few plants with disease infection. The infected plants had wilted with droopy ears, the same disease infection was observed at Pommern Parish. The grains were poorly filled and shriveled. We could not identify the disease immediately, we continue to investigate. Beans were at maturing stage. However, the bean pods were poorly filled. The Parish planted two varieties; BIFA and UYOLE NJANO. By appearance BIFA was seen to be performing better than the other variety. Pyrethrum plants survival was good (about 75%) but the plot was not weeded. There were many weeds. Comments Some members of the congregation have adopted the agricultural practices which are taught at the demonstration plot. The Pastor reported 14 members to have adopted. 4/14 use certified seed and fertilizer as recommended, the rest use local varieties because they have a feeling that the certified seed is expensive and they used DAP fertilizer instead of NPK recommended. Because of little fertilizer they apply, they widen the space between plants to 30 – 40cm instead the 20cm. Conclusion Parishioners were encouraged to try all the methods taught at the demonstration plot except the fertilizer if they cannot afford space. They were advised to maintain 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. The Parishioners also are studying the performance of the two bean varieties; Uyole njano and BIFA planted in their plot, which is good for them to make choice variety for the next planting season.