Nyanzwa - CVP Report Jan 15-2010

2010 CVP
Companion Village Project
Visit Report
4th Visit Year One
January 15, 2010


Village Nyanzwa
Pastor Luhwano Mwafute and District Pastor Gideon Mhenga
Companion Easter Lutheran
Attendees 11
Weather for the past month Raining
Reporters Ibrahim and Roger

Purpose of the visit
• Planting bean and fertilizer application demonstrations
• Demonstration on second fertilizers application in corn
• Deliver fertilizer bags, Bean seeds, bottle spray, and insecticides
Topics
1. Greetings
Roger gave greetings from Easter Lutheran, Saint Paul Area Synod and US Advisory Committee
2. Went through the handouts
o 4th Visit handout
o Quiz handout
o Rain record sheets.
3. Demonstrations
We demonstrated on how to measure inter row spacing (30cm). Using a string and a hand hoe, it was demonstrated on how to make a trench for planting the bean seeds. One seed was placed after every 10 cm. It was demonstrated how to place one full bottle cap of fertilizer between 2 seeds i.e. Seed-seed-fertilizer-seed-seed-fertilizer etc.

4. Fertilizer and seed delivery
According to the analysis of the soil of this area, the type of fertilizer recommended was NPK (10-18-24) for planting bean seed. The congregation was given 2 NPK bags and 40 Kg of bean seeds, variety of bean seeds delivered is WANJA-(drought resistance variety). We also delivered 2 bags of CAN for second fertilizer application to corn field. Corn was planted on December 30th, 2009.




Comments
 In the group of 11 people who attended the meeting, five (5) people already started practicing the techniques we taught them from the moment we started the training in March, 2009. This is good to be happened and that is the reason why we have been insisting people to practice all the techniques.

 We had a primary school representative (a teacher) who attended the meeting. When the school management heard from the pastor about our Ag seminars they were happy and decided to send a representative and hoped that next time a student can get involved or attend.

 For those who already practiced the techniques they said it is beneficial because it is easy to weed the field and easy to harvest since it is planted in rows.

 We were happy to see the rainfall data recorded from the rain gauge we gave them. They have received about 4 inches of rains since December.

Questions from audience and answers

 Why is the important to do crop rotation?
It is important because it breaks the disease cycles and helps to effectively utilize the available nutrients located in the soil. It also helps to fix nitrogen when the rotation involves leguminous plants such as beans when rotated with corn.

 Why not mixing several crops within the same field/plot?
To avoid unnecessary nutrient and moisture competition between plants,

Why broadcast the fertilizer when some remains after application?
It is important to broadcast the remaining fertilizers because the amount was recommended based on the soil analysis from the samples taken from the plot, so we want to make sure all the amount is applied in the field.

 If they don’t have as much fertilizer as we recommend what they can do?
We suggested that they use manure (compost) or go for large spacing that will give them maximum plant population per area.



Conclusions/Recommendations
We emphasized the importance of following instruction because the success of the program depends upon following what we instructed and also encouraged them to practice the techniques taught. They promised to follow all the instructions and encourage others to practice.