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Many things have been happening here at KT. Although this post was meant to be written in December, here it is now: 2017 in Review.
January 2017
With the foundation of the warehouse/office building almost finished, our work crew continued to work on the building.
After meeting with village leaders, we relinquished some disputed land and acquired some to replace it. Our boundary lines subsequently changed shape slightly.
On the farm, we planted sunflower to provide us with seed to sell in the following year.
February 2017
With the help of our short-term Volunteer, Don, our work crew finished the foundation slab for the warehouse and office.
Justina was hired as a farm supervisor. Amani came on staff as the future educator of intern children, and began filling in as office manager.
A generous donation allowed us to buy KT’s first vehicle, a suzuki carry.
March 2017
After input from the village, we began building a road to our warehouse/office site.
Robert was hired as an additional farm supervisor and began preparing for the future sunflower business and extension program.
April 2017
On the farm we were busy planting cover crops for the dry season.
The building crew continued to work on the warehouse/office building.
May 2017
Our entire staff took a weekend off for retreat and team building.
June 2017
Geofrey joined our team as accountant, and immediately began the job of getting books and finances in order.
Our sunflower crop was harvested and seed was stored for next year’s plantings.
July 2017
We hosted a short-term team from GoMAD. They came to begin work on 2 15,000L rain tanks next to the warehouse/office building.
August 2017
GoMAD sent their second short term team who completed the water tanks
Our warehouse/office building was roofed.
Tim Watkins, from ECHO, spent two weeks with us helping to develop a complete agro-forestry farm plan.
Robert went on a tour with the Agha Khan Organization in Lindi to get an overview of the Tanzaninan Sunflower Industry.
September 2017
Work continued on the warehouse/office building. For the first time ever, we were able to lock it!
October 2017
We hosted a ‘Theology of Agriculture’ seminar led by Bret Harrison for our KT staff and some local pastors and evangelists.
We began building a reservoir on our land.
We started a nursery for our tree planting program.
The second floor was put in in the warehouse, and stairs were built to access it.
November 2017
Stage one of the reservoir was completed.
While the heavy machinery was on site for the reservoir building, we had a new south service road built to the KT property, which also opened up some land for village expansion.
Matei was sent to Iringa for a bee-keeper training.
December 2017
With the coming of the rains, our reservoir began to fill up.
We neared completion on the well water pumping project which will not only provide water to KT’s land, but also to the local secondary school that sits just below us on the hill.
We began planting 5,000 agro-forestry, multi-purpose, and fruit trees on KT land.
We celebrated Christmas with KT staff and family members with a pilau meal and film showing. It turns out that the second floor of our warehouse makes an excellent movie theater!
Most of our fields have been planted with restorative cropping. Pigeon pea was planted first to give it ahead start. Then macuna bean, jack bean and lab-lab bean were relay planted in between. So far so good! (See the map below for Main Farm land location.)
Click on the map to the left to enlarge.
Click again to zoom even more.
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.
KT’s Market Research Coordinator continues to research possible markets for KT. We are researching what things we can do that will not only generate income for KT, but also help the lives of the local villagers. In addition we have been researching local (Tanzanian) sources of the different crops we hope to start with.
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. 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.