Kipanga - Lake Park Lutheran CVP Visit Report - June 25-2013

2011 CVP Companion Village Project 5th Visit Year Two June 25, 2013 Village Kipanga Pastor Wilbert Kidibule Companion Lake Park Lutheran, Lake Park Attendees 10 Weather for the past month Dry and cloudy Reporters Gabriel and Venance We visited this village on our way from Ilogombe. We arrived afternoon and meet the villagers nearby the Pastors’ house and close to the demonstration plots. Purpose of the visit • Demonstrating on how to take yield measurements Topics 1. Review of the handouts o 5th Visit handout o Yield recording sheet 2. Demonstrations We demonstrated on to take the yield measurements. We instructed them to measure 10 m rows from which the plants and ears will be counted. Then the process should be repeated to the bean plot. The same thing should be done to collect the yields from the neighbour’s plots for comparison with the demonstration plot. 3. Crop storage We instructed the villagers on how to store the crops. The advantages of storing crops for long give a farmer a change to sell that crop when the price is high enough and also ensure food security in the household 4. Marketing We reminded them that this is the time that they should start to explore various marketing options. It’s important they seek market information so as to keep up to date with the crop prices Demonstration plots This village has three demonstration plots; Corn, beans and pyrethrum. Bean plot has already been harvested. Corn is still in the field. We introduced new varieties here because the last year hybrid variety had an ear rotting problem. This year's variety (TMV) was resistant to ear rotting. However, it had germination problem. The gaps can be seen in the field. We instructed attendees to harvest and measure yields, using those measurements we can evaluate the performance of the variety Questions from the attendees  Why is it recommended to buy new hybrid seeds every season? It is recommended to buy new hybrid seeds every season because the yields of hybrid varieties do decrease when you save the seeds and plant them the next season  Does this happen in the local varieties too? No, local varieties are not produced as hybrid seeds. Seeds of the local varieties can be saved and planted from one season to another without affecting the yields  Where can we buy the TMV seed variety? This variety was produced by the government research institute. Unfortunately, the variety is not produced anymore. However we can use the seeds from the demonstration plots. Since the variable is not Hybrid we can save the seeds and plant in the coming season Conclusion We told them that we will be back in August to pick the yield measurement records and discuss with them storage and marketing issues. The pastor asked us to visit farmers in their own farms the next time we visit Kipanga and see how they have adopted the practices.