This is a sector wide project which serves to
provide rural farmers with the seed of improved varieties of field crop species
developed by ISRA, the Senegalese agricultural research organization. In my
first year I have givens small amounts of seed to 15 farmers in my village and
surrounding villages. From seeding to harvest and storage I have monitored the
plot of land on which the seed I provided was sown, offering advice and
recommended practices along the way. The seed given was non-GMO synthetic corn,
millet, sorghum, and cowpea (beans). I visited each field about every ten days
throughout the growing season. At harvest, farmers are required to return twice
the amount of seed I gave them. I have taught them to select prime grain to be
stored as seed to be planted next year. This seed will retain some of the
improved traits for up to four years (depending on the species). If the farmer
liked the performance of the seed it is in their interest to store their seed
well. Seed only one generation old can be sold as improved seed to other
farmers. I have also worked with each of them to store their seed so it will be
safe from pests and other damage until the next seeding time.
I have calculated the yield
of the fields planted with improved seed as best I could and this information
will lend to the field research databank for these improved varieties. Now that
I have seen a fall rainy season I have a better understanding of the local
cropping systems and will be able to more accurately monitor these fields next
year. I have gathered considerable qualitative information from the farmers
involved regarding how they liked the performance of the seed; the phenotype of
the plant and grain, flavor, input requirements, yield, labor requirements,
etc. I have also inquired into whether or not they would be willing to pay for
this seed versus the seed they previously purchased (assuming the price would
be higher). This is so I can loosely assess my work partners’ willingness to
change their behavior and adopt this new technology. This is necessary to make
this project sustainable since it is necessary to buy this seed new every 3 or
4 years in order to maintain the improved performance. We are working to make
the Master Farm
site a source to buy this seed.
I feel my role as an extensionist
is to lend support to farmers so they can improve their cropping systems
themselves, not simple to hand out seed. By giving them small amounts to try my
hope is they can decide for themselves if the purchase of such improved seed
would be beneficial to their livelihoods. In my first year I have put a lot of
emphasis on seed storage methods. In January of 2012 I held a village wide
training teaching various seed storage methods and followed up with farmers who
asked for assistance on implementing these. I have worked individually with
farmers to whom I have provided inputs to store their seeds this year.
Next year (2013) my
counterpart and I will utilize the improved seed to create a conservation
agriculture demonstration. I will also be using this seed to implement my SRI pilot project, which
farmers will be required to follow specific techniques. In my first year of
this project, farmers cropped the seed using their own techniques taking some
advice from me, but without rigid implementation requirements from me. Their
local knowledge of this area is superior to mine and I was learning along with
them this first year. One of the reasons I have chosen to doo an SRI pilot
project is that most farmers are lacking knowledge of rice cropping systems but
interest in the crop is high. This was made even clearer to me when many
farmers excitedly requested rice seed from me but did not follow up on
preparing fields. Most farmers expected I would tell them what to do every step of the
way, something I didn’t have enough knowledge to do. For June 2013 I will have a system planned out step by step and standardized for testing purposes. I
will have conducted an in depth survey on local systems and will be prepared to
execute these demonstrations with willing work partners.
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