Kitowo - CVP Visit Report - Jan 23-2013

2010 Companion Village Project 3rd Visit, Year Three January 23, 2013 Village Kitowo Pastor Rehema Longo Companion First Evangelical Lutheran Church Attendees 4 Weather for the past month Cloudy and moist Reporters Ibrahim and Venance Introduction At this time of the season most farmers are very busy trying to catch up with weeding operations as weeds are growing vigorously to compete with crop plants, therefore we were not astonished to find only four members of the church waiting to receive the teaching. Purpose of the visit: • To make follow-up on the CVP progress and solve any arising problems; the inputs were delivered earlier. • Demonstrating second fertilizer application and insecticide application Topics covered • Review of the handouts - 3rd Visit Instruction - Plant population and Fertilizer applications • Demonstrations: 2nd Fertilizer application; The attendees were given an opportunity to demonstrate on how to apply fertilizers which they did precisely. However, they were advised not to place fertilizers and seeds together. The fertilizer should be placed 5cm away from the plant to avoid any fertilizer injury. • Corn plants, beans and pyrethrum Corn plants were above knee high tall; they looked well spaced, weeded and fertilized and in good shape. The pesticide had been applied. The beans were not yet planted, the parishioners said they would plant beans later in the season. They were expecting to transplant pyrethrum from Pommern village public nursery. Comments/Questions They asked questions on the applicability of minimum tillage in their situations and we advised them to continue with ox - plowing because the soil at Kitowo is clay which tends to become very hard after drying. They asked about maize streak virus disease and we advised them to follow phytosanitary practices and do crop rotation to minimize disease incidences. An important comment for this village is that all the CVP documents which were missing after the transfer of the pastor were returned back in place. Therefore, the parishioners were very happy to see their documents back. Another comment was that we were able to connect them to the Microfinance Institute Staff so that they could be able to receive loans for agricultural activities before it was too late in the season. Conclusion: The attendees and the Pastor seemed interested with the teaching. They are likely to do better as they learn more.