Kipanga CVP Visit Report - Oct 15-2012

2012 Companion Village Project 3rd Visit, Year Two October 15, 2012 Village Kipanga Pastor/Evangelist Winled Fwimi Companion Lake Park Lutheran Church Attendees 33 Weather for the past month Dry Reporters Chaula, Rev. Mang’ulisa, Pongolan, and Venance We made a quick visit to this parish out of schedule because Magnus Chaula, the pyrethrum coordinator was not feeling well to drive his vehicle, so we had to combine the teams and all of us drove in the Institute’s vehicle through Ilogombe , then Kipanga. Upon arrival at Kipanga that afternoon after the teachings at Ilogombe , we met so many members of the village (33) anxiously waiting to go to the pyrethrum nursery and later do the teaching on corn and beans. It was challenging to walk down the steep slope to the valley bottom where the pyrethrum seedlings are being raised and walk back to do the meeting at the church, but we managed to do so. It was quite an adventure but also amazing to see the large number of nursery ‘beds’ with small seedlings growing well there. Purposes of the visit: • To see the pyrethrum nursery. • To demonstrate on planting of corn and beans Topics 1. Review of the handouts • 3rd Visit Instruction • Plant population with 60 cm. rows and Fertilizer applications • Fertilizer needs template 2. Demonstration o Planting and fertilizer applications on corn and beans . The demonstration plot is close to the church. We demonstrated on how to plant corn and beans and how to apply fertilizers. We insisted that they should not place seeds and fertilizers together. There should be at least 5cm apart. The spacing is 60×20cm for corn and 30×10cm for beans. Fertilizers should be applied to both corn and beans. 3. Rainfall record We provided them with more rainfall record sheets and insisted that they should continue recording the amount of rain that falls in order to establish a database and use it to determine when to plant different crops. 4. Delivery There was no any delivery done on this day because the deliveries were made during the sixth visit in July. We promised to bring two bags of NPK for bean planting when the fertilizer becomes available. Conclusion The pyrethrum seedlings were not in lines. The pyrethrum coordinator insisted to the villagers that next time they must sow seeds in drills to make seedlings grow in lines. There were complaints from the villagers that the pyrethrum buying agent was not always available to buy the flowers and make payments in time. The pyrethrum coordinator took the matter for solutions, and on the way back we stopped at Ilogombe to meet the buying agent and the coordinator had time to talk to the agent and finally gave him money for paying the villagers as he buys the pyrethrum flowers.