Image Secondary School CVP Visit Report - Aug 17-2012

2010 CVP Companion Village Project 6th Visit Year Two August 17, 2012 Village Image Secondary School Pastor Andeck Ngogo Companion Augustana Lutheran Attendees 03 Weather for the past month Dry and warm Reporters Rev.Mangu’lisa, Pongolan and Venance 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 were harvested. The yield of both the corn and the beans were very little. The school harvested only 5tins (about 100kg) of corn and 4kg of beans. The yield is extremely low, it makes anyone coming across it ask what happened, we were curious to learn the reason for the alarmingly low yield. The school was in recess and we met only three members of staff. According to them the reason was drought but the crops were planted late in the season. After seeing the plot, we thought the site was not suitable for crop production. After discussion with Rev. Mbangwa and the school storekeeper named David Mbululo who supervises the plot at this school, they decided to move the plot to a new site for the next farming season. 3. Storage: Despite the low yield, 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 some pesticides to them to mix with their harvested grains. 4. Discussion about the farming season: As mentioned above, the school recorded very little yield of both corn and beans. The two leaders of the school plot confessed that the site selected for the demonstration plot was not suitable for crop production but also added that the time for planting the crops was already late. The two factors contributed to the poor performance of the plot. 5. Adoption Reverend Mbangwa said he applied some techniques taught by the institute and succeed to more than double the harvest from his plot. Comments/questions  The attendees thought the corn variety was Ok to try in the coming season but were pessimistic on the bean variety. They thought cow peas would do better than beans because the area was hit by drought. Conclusion We encouraged them move the plot and plant crops early in the season. We thought they can try part of the bean plot with cowpeas to see any difference in performance with beans in the coming season.