My Dealio....

It’s starting to come together here, but it better get a move on because the rains are about to get their move on….

About 10 miles outside of town there is a group of children in Caiaia I have been working with once a week. They are all orphans (all 45 of them) which here is defined by those that have lost one parent if not both. They are poor enough that I am able to learn their names by associating a name with an item of clothing they’re wearing (i.e. Tucha has a yellow skirt), because what they are wearing never changes it only becomes more threadbare. A couple weeks back we planted a small field (1,600 ft2) of Roma tomatoes. For a variety of reasons (I presume to be: poor soil, weak seedlings, and a mismatch between variety and climate) tomatoes here are planted about 1 foot away from each other as opposed to about 2 feet in The States. This, as well as the other aforementioned factors, undoubtedly contributes to the tomato plants never growing more than 1 foot in height before setting fruit. It’s an odd sight for one that is accustom to rows of staked tomato plants reaching 4ft tall and bending over from the weight of fruit. I do not claim to be a tomato expert and I am sure there are other factors at play, but I digress……..

The kiddies planted around 350 tomato plants in this plot and now fight the weed pressure. One of the techniques I am stressing is maintaining a permanent mulch covering on their fields. It currently is posing a challenge because weeding (though needed less frequently) is initially a bit more work with mulch in the way. The group’s focus is not only work, we have been doing some mini-agronomy lessons, dancing a bit, singing a bit, racing a bit. We have a good time. I’m teaching them some farming themed song and dances that I have somewhat invented and I’ve actually incorporated moves like “stirring the soup” and “raising the roof”. It’ll make for a good video one of these days. The group is also busy preparing a peanut and corn field. This should have been finished last week because the rainy season is slipping into reality and all of such fields are rain irrigated. Land prep needs to be done well before to ensure sowing immediately after a good rain. I’m in the process of setting up 2 other similar junior farmer programs near town as well. We’re running a bit behind mostly because my arrival here was just a bit late in the timing of this all

Besides that I assisting with the normal (adult) farmer associations, teaching them both conservation agriculture principals and trying to teach them to just be more efficient with they’re own time in the field (the whole more with less scheme). I am reminded daily how much Americans absolutely thrive on multitasking (i.e. writing emails during a meeting or class, eating and driving, etc). It’s almost instinctual so I can’t help but suggest ways that these farmers can do 2 things at once. It’s a bit of a new concept. These farmers’ associations have a demonstration plot where we ask them to test out some of these new techniques along side their own. I’m helping the groups set up these plots and reduce the fear that a comes wrapped around a new thing.

Also, I’m growing into a role sort of as a business consultant. You an stop your laughing now…. The farmers’ Federation (an organization that represents over 1,000 farmers in the district) here buys corn, beans, and peanuts from the farmer associations and with this mass of raw product attempts to market it to a larger buyer, like World Food Program or a processor. It’s ideally a self-sustaining business, but it’s still in its infancy despite being several years old. I’m going to try and help them tighten up some of their transactions and allocation of resources in the name of cost effectiveness with the hope of squeezing a profit out of their work. I’m sort of just a set of eyes to watch where the money and time goes.

That’s my deal here….. I’ve been keeping pretty busy and riding my bike all around and up and down hilly dirt roads. The dust is at its maximum right now at the end of the dry season and most days a haze of smoke hangs in the air as a result of farmers burning their fields and these flames jumping to nearby prairies. The rains will help this all. I just hope I get my work done before.