2009 CVP
Companion Village Project
3rd Visit Year Two
November 4, 2010
Village Ruaha Mbuyuni (Kwale)
Pastor Elia Kango
Companion Holy Trinity, New Prague
Attendees Male 12 Female 8
Weather for the past month Dry
Ag Institute Staff Gabriel, Fred and Pastor Mang’ulisa
Purpose of the visit
• Delivering seeds and fertilizers
• Demonstrating corn planting and fertilizer applications
We sat outside on the yard of the elder of this place. The meeting and the demonstration took place here. Most of the people attended this demonstrations are from the Masai tribe.
Greetings
Before we began the demonstration, Fred delivered greetings from St. Paul Area Synod and US Institute of Ag advisory committee
Review of the handouts
Together with them we went through the handouts
• 3rd Visit Instruction
• Plant population with 60 cm. rows and Fertilizer applications
• Fertilizer needs template
Demonstrations
o Planting and fertilizer applications
We demonstrated on how to place seeds (Both corn and beans) 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 corn seeds
Crop Seeds Fertilizer
Varieties Amount Type Amount
Corn Pioneer 3253 8kg (4 bags) NPK 100kg (2 bags)
o Drought resistant crops
We told them we want to introduce the drought resistant crops other than corn and beans. The crops are sorghum and cowpeas. They said they did try to farm sorghum in their area and it did not work out. Their area has so many birds and farming sorghum seemed like attracting more. Birds eat sorghum more than they eat other crops. We agreed with them that they should try cowpeas only.
o Irrigation
Their area does not get enough rainfall. All of the farming here depends on irrigation. Last year they had just ¼ acre of corn and ½ acre of beans. The yield has not been good because they had issues with the water pump they were using. This year they will have ½ acre of corn and ½ acre of beans. Corn plot has been moved close to the new pump. The pump owner has allowed them to use it this year and next year. What they have to do is to buy Diesel to run the pump. They asked us to help them money to buy the diesel, we told them we shall discuss this and give them an answer later.
o Plots
We took a walk to see the plots. It is near by the water channel which gets pumped water from the pipe which is about 50m long. The pump itself is about 500m from the plot, close to the river. We walked to the pump to see it. It looks somehow old, but they told us it is working better than the previous pump they used last year.
Questions/comments
There insects eating the corn leaves before they reach knee high. How should the control them?
The insects are probably army worms. There pesticides used to control them; one of them is called Thionex. We will bring a bottle of Thionex for the demonstration plot.
The old elder of this place told us he is now using improved variety of corn. He showed us the one bag of seeds (PAN 61). He also told us he is using cow manure for to his farm
We encouraged them to use cow manure in their farm to increase the soil fertility and soil moisture retention. They should not burn the crop residues because they also increase the soil fertility and soil moisture retention too. By practicing these techniques they will increase soil fertility and reduce the amount of irrigated water. They will be able to save money from buying diesel for irrigating pump. Moreover for high yield they should go to buy fertilizers and improved seeds for their farms
Conclusion
We encourage them to follow the instructions and do things in timely manner. We told them we will be back in January for bean planting and the fertilizer second application demonstrations.
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