Itungi - Ag Inst Extension Report Apr 23-2013

2008 Companion Village Project Extension Program, 5th Year 2nd Visit April 23, 2013 Village Itungi Pastor/Evangelist Medson Chengula Companion Como Park Lutheran Church Attendees 20 Weather for the past month Dry Reporters Ibrahim, Peter and Venance We went to Itungi accompanied by Peter from the Microfinance Institute so that he could handle SACCO’s issues. We met a big audience of 20 members of the Parish. Purpose of the visit • To conduct lesson two of the extension education network and share ideas about the topics taught. Topics covered Lesson two of Extension Education Network: Plant Diseases • The concept of plant diseases • Causes of plant diseases • Disease symptoms • Common methods used to control plant diseases • Some common diseases found around Iringa region • Cited examples of common corn and bean diseases, symptoms and ways of control Questions/Comments The Parishioners asked a number of questions and answers were provided through discussion. Question: The corn seeds bought from some shops seem to be the fake ones, where can we buy true seeds and how can we identify the true seed? Answer: It is not easy to identify the true seed by eyes; however you are advised to buy the seed from official shops e.g. TFA where you can get receipts. Keep receipts and in case of any anomaly you can go back to the shop and complain or sue the owner. Question: The hybrid corn seed H6302 did very well in the high altitude part of the region but it is no longer found, the replacing H6303 is not performing well, where can we find the former variety? Answer: The H6032 was upgraded to H6303 which seems to yield higher than the former H6302; unfortunately the H6303 lost the resistance to ear rot that the H6302 had. There is nothing we can do to help that besides the continuing effort to look for a corn variety suitable to the high altitude and resistant to the ear rot. Question: Which pesticide among some named pesticides is the best for use in controlling crop pests? Answer: Unfortunately the Trade Names of pesticides change very much with time, what matters are the chemical compositions of the pesticide; therefore it is important to seek for advice from an extension agent when planning to buy a pesticide. Question: While we all admit that we have a problem of obtaining quality seeds for the farmers, why not make the Institute of Ag be the centre for seed production? Answer: Seed production is an expensive venture which takes time to come up with real quality seed, the Institute of Ag is a small unit, a lot of preparation is require before being able to produce seed. Question: What happens to the corn cob which produces a few distantly spaced kernels on a cob? Answer: That is caused by poor fertilization which may be caused by damaged silk e.g. silk eaten by insects or inadequate supply of pollen grains from the male part of the corn plant which rarely happens because a female corn plant can be fertilized by another plant and plenty of pollen grains are produced. Question: Pesticides for seed dressing (for protection of the seeds) are not available in agrochemical shops, where can we find them? Answer: Pesticides for seed dressing are commonly not available in agrochemical shops but are supplied to the seed distributors who are supposed to do the seed dressing process before the seed is distributed to the farmers. Concerns: • Farmers expressed their concern about diseases attacking oranges, pawpaw and tomatoes. Unfortunately shortage of time limited us not to visit individual farmers to observe the disease infection for identification and advice. • They also claimed termite to be an expanding problem in the village. We still do not know the appropriate pesticide for termite control. SACCOS Peter from the Institute of Microfinance talked about SACCOS. Initially there was a resistance from members to join SACCOS because of the bad past experience of the leaders being not honest. But after a warm discussion all the members agreed to form a SACCOS and promised to call the Microfinance Institute for training after organizing some meetings. Conclusion Members are eager to learn more of farming in these extension education meetings and it works very well when the Ag Institute visits are combined with the Institute of Microfinance.