Ihemi-Christiania Luth., CVP Report for Nov 18-2010

2008 CVP
Companion Village Project
3rd Visit, Year Three
November 18, 2010
Village Ihemi
Pastor Mgeyekwa/ Upendo Sanga
Companion Christiania, Lakeville
Attendees 15
Weather for the past month Dry
Ag Institute Staff Gabriel , Nafeti and Pastor Mang’ulisa

Purpose of the visit
• Delivering seeds and fertilizers
• Demonstrating corn planting and fertilizer applications

Review of the handouts
Together with them we went through the handouts
• 3rd Visit Instruction
• Plant population with 60cm rows and Fertilizer applications
• Fertilizer needs template

Demonstrations
o Planting and fertilizer applications
We walked to their plot close to the church. We demonstrated on how to place seeds and how to apply fertilizers. We insisted that they should not place seeds and fertilizers together.
o Seeds and fertilizers
We delivered 2 bags of NPK and 4 bags of H628 Corn seeds

Crop Seeds Fertilizer
Varieties Amount Type Amount
Corn H628 8Kg (4 bags) NPK 100kg (2 bags)

Questions/comments
 They told us they are having problem to get the right seeds for their farms because some of the villagers bought seeds last year and unfortunately the seeds were “fake”!
We told them to buy seeds from the certified dealers (shops). Moreover they should report to their village authority and to the extension officers whenever they experience poor performance of the seeds
 Is it appropriate to use cow manure for planting
Cow manure is good because it supplies P and K. Moreover manure increases moisture retaining capacity of the soil and soil OM. However, for higher yield, industrial fertilizers are better than cow manure because they have high content of nutrients.
 When to put second applications of fertilizers?
We recommend the second application to be done 60 days after planting or when plants are at knee high (ref. the instructions handout)
 They asked if they should plant beans only after corn for crop rotations or they can plant other crops
We told them that they can use other leguminous plants (eg. cowpeas) for crop rotation because all leguminous plants add nitrogen in the soil when grown following grain crops

Conclusion
We encouraged them to do better and have good yield in their plot because it is their third year and we believe they have learning a lot in the past two years.