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Thursday, April 24, 2014

Agricultural Trainings

Although, due to lack of rain, KIDO has not started digging gardens and planting seeds, I have recently been able to join two of the field staff - Geofrey and William - in trainings on the theoretical aspect of agriculture. 

This is William:


To get the communities ready for planting season and the demonstration gardens of green manure/cover crops that are planned, Geofrey, William, and Emmanuel are busy training farmer groups about techniques for growing vegetables, how to control insect pests, and how to improve the soil by growing green manure and cover crops - plants that grow quickly and often under poor conditions and which add organic material to the soil.  

William and I taught about the importance of growing vegetables for health, a balanced diet, and for selling.  We discussed the spacing for different plants and how to estimate ten centimeters or a meter without having a measuring tape.  We also talked about plant diseases and insect pests. 


In one of our trainings, children had just been released from school so they crowded into the church to see what was going on.  I'm not sure how much of the teaching they actually listened to because of all the time spent staring at me.



When I worked with Geofrey, we started a training about green manure and cover crops.  We were only able to get through the parts about differences between good and bad soils, what soil fertility is, and different ways that people try to improve their soil.  Next time, they will continue by talking about how green manure and cover crops are an efficient and cost-effective way of caring for and improving the soil.  



The training was very interactive; the farmers brainstormed answers to questions and had the opportunity to teach each other.  From what I could tell, they already knew many of the concepts, but maybe had never put them all together systematically. 




I do love teaching, but I am definitely looking forward to going out into the fields and getting my hands dirty.  I was spoiled by a year working outside on the farm daily at World Hunger Relief!

2 comments:

  1. It is interesting that in our culture, men would give up their seats for a woman, while in Uganda, the women sit on the ground while the men sit on chairs.

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  2. I love hearing about how your trainings are organized and their content. Spending 3 months in Liberia was only just long enough to really get integrated into the culture and understand the way they did things in the agriculture department. I didn't have much time, energy or capacity to evaluate and analyze the methods and techniques before it was time to go. They practice slash and burn, so I was able to discuss the pros and mostly cons of that, and the livestock practices were pretty horrendous, but that'll be a long-term improvement.....

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