Mlowa July 21, 2010

2010 CVP
Companion Village Project
Visit Report
5th Visit Year One
July 21, 2010


Village Mlowa
Pastor Lunogelo Mbwilo
Companion Christus Victor, MN
Attendees 20
Weather for the past month Dry
Reporters Ibrahim, Gabriel and Lunodzo

Purposes of the visit
• To collect the yield measurement
• To deliver grain storage chemical “Shumba”
• End of season discussion and planning for the next farming season
Topics
1. Review of the handouts
• 6th Visit instruction handout
• Yield recording sheet
2. Harvesting
Both corn and beans have been harvested here. The beans were harvested earlier than our 5th visit.
Amounts in bags/plot
( ½ Acre) Yield in 3 lines( For further analysis) Remarks
Corn 3bags 2tins Litres 6 8 4 Drought
No. of plants 25 35 20
Beans 3tins Litres Bean variety did not perform well
No. of plants

3. Storage
We instructed them on how to store grain for home usage and for selling at the time of high price. We instructed how to mix grain storage pesticides “shumba” and the appropriate volume of grain per bottle recommended. We left the pesticides to them to mix with their harvested grains.
4. Discussion about the farming season
• Corn
The improved variety (Pioneer 3253) we introduced here works better than the local variety. They had termites’ problem. Moreover they had irrigation problems too (They depend on the irrigation water for farming here)
• Beans
The Urafiki variety does not perform well here, the beans do not look good and some of the grains seem to dry before reach maturity. We are planning to introduce a different variety next growing season
We encourage them to form farmers’ cooperatives. This will help them to get farming loans, buying inputs and selling their grains for better price. Now they have to sell to the middle men in very low price and later on they go back to them and buy the crops for food.

Comments/questions
 We told them that the termites are controllable. They would have informed us earlier and we would give them the pesticides to control the termites. They said next season they will be passing information (about pest and disease in the demonstration plots) as earlier as possible.
 They were wondering why the Pioneer do form single ear only while local varieties form single and sometimes double ears
We told them that some of the varieties developed for the dry areas do have a characteristic of either forming single ear or having short plants. Sometimes the single ear helps the plant to reach maturity earlier.
 They asked us if we can try the more drought resistant variety of corn.
We told them we will look for more drought resistant variety of corn especially those developed in Tanzania and try in their village next season.

Conclusion
Most of the villagers here depend on irrigation water for farming. We told them they should utilize water efficiently by plant improved seeds and use fertilizer. They express their thanks for the agricultural training program and for their companion congregation for supporting the demonstration plots.