Nduli - CVP Visit Report - Apr 22-2013

2008 CVP Companion Village Project 2nd Visit of Extension Network Program April 22, 2013 Village Nduli Pastor Laiton Muyinga Companion Christ the King Lutheran, New Bringhton & YARA Co. Attendees 20 Weather for the past month Dry Inst staff Gabriel and Micro-finance staff (Itiweni, Peter and Magreth) On this visit, we were accompanied by Micro-finance institute staff. The meeting was organized to conduct two trainings; Agricultural training and Micro-finance (SACCOS) training. The trainings were conducted in the village hall nearby the church Purpose of the visit • Extension education: Plant diseases Topic • Review of the handout We went through the extension network handout which is about plant diseases • Discussion We discussed about plant diseases of both corn and beans. The discussion focused on the causes of plant diseases, disease symptoms and plant disease control. Common plant diseases found in Iringa region were addressed. Farmers were advised on how to control them. Questions/Comments from the audience  Where should we buy pesticides from? Pesticides are sold almost in all agro-chemical shops. We advised you to buy pesticides and other agricultural inputs from reliable and registered agro-chemical shops. When you buy make sure you get required instructions and you read expire date.  We have a problem with the seeds. This year the DK corn seeds were not good. The germination were poor and the performance was not good. What should we do? This might be the case of fake seeds introduced in the market. As the market of improved seeds expands, there has been unfaithful people, using he opportunity try to get maney by paking seeds, put the name and log of famous companies. Again, we advise you to buy agricultural inputs from reliable and registered agro-chemical shops. When you buy take a receipts. If you have a receipts it will be easy to report and make follow up when the seeds bought are discovered as fake seeds.  Our areas is dry areas. We have termites problem that attack and damage young plants. What should we do? We can control termites using a pesticides. The pesticides is sold in the agro-chemical shop. It is in liquid form, you dilute with water and spray to the infected areas. Go to the shop and ask for pesticides that can control termites. Do not burn the crop residues to control termites  We have problem with certain type of weeds. They make yellow or red flowers, they are small and usually grow in corn fields. This type of weeds once infested the filed corn plants become weak and someties fail to produce a crop. How can we control this weeds? The weeds are called striga (Striga spp) or witch weed. The weed is considered one of the major problem weeds in Tanzania causing 40-90% yield losses in maize and other susceptible cereals. Most of the area affected are those with low fertility characterized by very low organic carbon and very low nitrogen. There are three solution for striga: 1. The application of nitrogenous fertilizers is known to reduce the severity of Striga infestation and enable some level of maize production. 2. Other solution is to plant Striga resistant “IR maize”. 3. Incorporation of legumes in the cropping cycles reduce and control striga in the farm (Crop rotation). Conclusion The meeting was good. After the agricultural training, farmers were training on SACCOS and micro-loans. We told them that the next extension meeting we will be held n August/September.