Conrad Bérubé island crop management email: uc779(at)freenet.victoria.bc.ca Bee info

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Farmserve Africa Farmer to Farmer volunteer report Improved maize production through IPM for striga Trip dates june 1 to july 16, 2003 Part 1: striga  (striga activities conducted from june 17 to july 16, 2003) Conrad Bérubé 890 Eberts St. Nanaimo BC V9S 1P6 (250)754-1155 email: uc779(at)freenet.victoria.bc.ca http://www3.telus.net/Conrad

Lesson plans for striga control field day 2003

Gushiegu (july 4)

Manuring and composting

One of the principle means of limiting harvest loss in cereal crops is through soil conditioning to increase fertility.  manuring and composting is one of the most appropriate means of increasing soil fertility for the rural farmers of the northern region of Ghana.  animal  manure must be properly composted to reduce the risk of burning crop plants to which it is applied and to eliminate, as much as possible, weed seeds that may have retained viability after passing through the ruminants digestive tract.  

Objectives:

By the end of the session participants should be able to:

V      Indicate two reasons why manuring is beneficial to soil
V      Indicate two concerns regarding the use of  animal manure as a soil amendment

Materials:

1 sack of animal manure (oict to provide)
1 bucket of water (PCF to provide)
1 hoe (PCF to provide)
1 shady tree (PCF to provide)
flip chart paper (oict to provide)

Activities:

Introduction (5 minutes)
Cover the objectives and purpose.
Demonstration (1 hr)
Demonstrate the selection of an appropriate composting site
Demonstrate the mixing and seasoning process.
Demonstrate the amount and placement of manure while seeding
Review (5 minutes)
Check for understanding and questions.

Lunch (30 minutes)

Seed washing
when grain heads intended for seed are dried in infested fields they may become contaminated with striga seed.  since striga seeds will float while viable grain will not, washing seed grain is one way to reduce the amount of the striga seed bank.

Objectives:

By the end of the session participants will be able to:

V      Properly wash and pre-soak corn and sorghum.

Materials:

Laundry tub (PCF to provide)
water  (PCF to provide)
20 kilos (or whatever quantity is appropriate for the demonstration and available) of maize (PCF to provide)
Laundry soap (oict to provide)

Activities:
After introducing the objectives conduct the washing and pourin-off of seed (20 minutes)

Introduction to demonstration plots
care must be taken when dispensing any agricultural recommendations because conditions may vary from the area in which seed was developed and can seriously impact expected results.  for instance, seeds resistant to striga may not do well under local growing conditions or may be subject to local maladies and thus do no better or may even fare worse than locally available seed.  demonstration plots are a good way for farmer to see actual results before committing their own resources to undertake recommended practices.
Pcf's for the local areas should co-ordinate with one or more of their local farmers who fulfill the following conditions:

V      Are willing to volunteer land/records,
V      Had a field that was badly infested with striga and have rotated out of maize within the past two seasons,
V      Since rotating out of maize only pure stands of the following crops have been  planted:O  Cotton

O  Soybean
O  Cowpea
O  Pigeon pea
O  Bambara bean
O  Groundnut

V      Have reliable records of past yields for both maize and rotation crops,
V      Rotation crop fields should adjoin or be within a short distance of fields where continuous cropping of maize has occurred or will occur.

For more information on the farmer-to-farmer program write to

Farmserve Africa Program
OIC International 240 West Tulpehocken Street
Philadelphia, PA 19144

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Copyright © 2007 Conrad Bérubé, site design, concept and scripting. All rights reserved worldwide.