Rainy Season / Planting time.
God has blessed this short rainy season with abundant rain. It has continued to rain right into the shorter dry season which has allowed us to continue clearing fields and more planting. Our primary goal is for planting season is restorative crops. Crops we are using are Pigeon pea, Macuan bean, Jack beans and some lab-lab beans. These are good nitrogen fixers as well as biomass producers. (See the map below for Main Farm land location.)
Intern Duplex
We are going up on the first Inter Duplex. This duplex will first be lived in by the CEO and his family. After further property developments on the KT Farm land, this house will be divided into a duplex and will house interns for the internship program. (See the map below for Intern Duplex location.)
Well & Water on the Farm Property
We are having some access complications to our farm site. The location the village council showed us and allowed us to put in a road to our site happens to go through a parcel of land belonging to a elderly man in the village. This man has been bothered with us driving on his property. We, of coarse, had know idea. But one day we discovered lots of plants planted right down the middle of the road. So we are trying to work things out. The issues is really for the village council to sort this out, as we only did what we were told to do. But since the older men don’t hold much value in the younger village council, matters like this can take a while to sort out. So while we have prepared the second well site, we can not bring a large truck on to the property at the moment.(See map below for well locations and service road.)
Seed Bank & Warehouse
It’s been a few months now, since we completed the excavation (by hand) for our under ground seed bank and ground level warehouse on top. However, this project is on hold due to funding and shortness of staff. (See map below for seed bank location.)
Beekeeping
As we get ready for bee swarming season, we are working with local carpenters to have more top bar beehive boxes made. Amina, our Market Development Coordinator has been working with local bee keepers who use log hives. We hope to share knowledge with one another for better beekeeping in the area. Honey is a valuable crop and when you put the hives in your garden you can increase yields significantly on many selected crops. KT will start beekeeping around May this year, assume we can catch some queens.
New Staff Housing and storage construction
Out Staff & Storage building is complete and being lived in now. This building is in full use. This past month we added the big awning over the back side to use as a work area. After other developments are complete, this storage room will eventually become a Farm Supply store. This will help local farmers have access to much needed supplies as well as providing an income for KT in the future. In the mean time this is sort of an all purpose building. (See map below for Staff Housing and storeroom location.)
Demonstration Plot
The demonstration plot is now in full service. The fence keeps the goats and cows out. Mulching keeps the moisture in. This plot is ideally located half way between the village (North to South) and on the main path headed up the hill to the west where every one in the village has farm land, including KT. This location will be very visible to all residents of Mchinga Mbili village. However, before KT owned this property, there was a major village path right on top of it. The path has now moved to the side, which is great, but it will take a season or two for the soil structure heal and nutrient levels to come back. We will have more demonstrations on our main farm land up the hill to the west, but this plot we hope will catch everyone’s eye initially.
