Ilambilole CVP Visit Report - Nov 5-2012

2008CVP Companion Village Project 1st Visit, Extension Network Year One November 05, 2012 Village Ilambilole Pastor Meshack Magova Companion Our Saviors, Hastings Attendees 17 Weather for the past month Dry Reporters Gabriel, Phil and Happy Purpose of the visit Extension Education; Fertilizers and Seed Introduction The demonstration meeting was conducted in the church. Phil delivered greetings from Our Saviors, Hastings and US advaisory comettee. Happy (an intern from Tumaini University) gave a presentation about agricultural entreprenaureship. She remainded them the importance of joining Saving and Credit Cooperative Societies. Review of the handout We went through the extension network handout about seeds and fertilizers. The training was divided into two parts; Fertilizers and seeds. The discussions were conducted in the church. Farmers had many questions and the discussion was very good. Comments/questions • Is pig manure suitable for corn and beans? Pig manure is one of the animal manure recommended for the crops. It is good type of manure because it adds N, P and K. It is good for corn and beans • What is the main difference between CAN and Urea? What is the best? CAN and Urea are both nitrogenous fertilizers, they add N to the soil. The difference between CAN and Urea is nitrogen content. Urea has high nitrogen content than CAN, however CAN has Calcium that is missing and Urea. All of this are good fertilizers for the second application. • Can I apply Urea at planting? Urea is nitrogenous fertilizer that is suitable for the second application. You should apply nitrogen when plants are at knee high or 60 days after planting. At this time, urea will work better. • Can I plant without fertilizers and then apply the mixing of DAP and Urea when plants are at knee high? DAP is good fertilizers when you apply as first application and urea should be applied as second application. This way fertilizer application will perform better and hence increase yields. • Is Minjingu phosphate good fertilizer? This is rock phosphate fertilizers, it is applied as first application. It is works in the soil that has high deficiency of phosphorus. However other fertilizers such as NPK nd DAP work better than minjingu phosphorus because these fertilizers have an addition of other nutrients ie. Nitrogen • What type of seed is better for this area? Your village gets low amount of rainfall. The rainfall duration is short. The type of corn seeds suitable for this area is Pioneer 3253, SITUKA, Tan54 etc. When you go to the shop ask for the corn seed varieties that takes less than 120 days to mature. • Why do ou tell us that we should not repeat hybrid seeds? These are type of seeds whose yield or disease resistant characters disappear as you repeat planting them. You are advised to use hybrid seeds only once • Can you train us on how to produce improved variety of seeds? We, the institute of Agriculture do not deal with seeds production. However we can advise you on how to prepaire good seeds from previous crop (of composite varieties). There are companies that involve farmers in production of hybrid seeds through contracts. However your area receives very low amount of rainfall, I don’t think it will be suitable for that. • There are many types of NPK fertilizers. Which number is suitable for corn roduction? The NPK suitable for corn is the one with numbers 23:10:5. The one with numbers 15:9:20 is suitable for beans and vegetables. • Can I use NPK 23:10:5 for both first and second application? Yes, that NPK has hig content of nitrogen. It can be used in first application and second application too. Conclusion We discussed with them on what topics they want to discuss in the coming extension meetings. They suggested livestock keeping and beekeeping. We told them that we will look for experts of the livestocks and beekeeping. In the next meeting, we will focus on those topics.