Crop Ideas: Congo Update 28 Aug 2013

Greeting from the Congo

Harvest is over mostly which is nice. Yields were low and a lot of varieties we tried didn’t work very well at all, but we learned a lot and more importantly the new tractoristes have learned a lot about working with and maintaining the farm machinery and growing a crop in a large mechanized modern setting. In development you can build a lot of things but if people are not trained things fall apart fast when the expat leaves. Too often not enough effort is budgeted in projects in the local people and more in things you can make a show of. The yield varied a lot but it was obvious were the weed control was poor the potato yield suffered, especially where there was a lot of bracken fern. Bracken fern has a known allelopathic effect on other plants thus it can dominate its environment by suppressing the competition.

We also grew a little watermelon for a trial and it did really well and was good eating. Most of the fruits here a sour as many of the local vegetable. I’m not sure if the acid soils leads to sour plants, but the watermelon was nice an sweet. Grew a little carrots, onions, cucumbers and tomatoes. Got a pneumatic small vegetable seeder ordered as well as some seed to plant big acres of onions, carrots and watermelon in the future.

We have three big challenges next season to increase the yields as I see it: better ground preparation, better weed control and more timely planting. With the big Russian tractors and big Brazilian disks ground preparation will be better. Since the tractor drivers are better trained I hope they can plant straighter so we can cultivate the potatoes twice. Last season we had to give up the second one as we were taking out too many potatoes in the process. The guys picked up on the cultivator blight name pretty fast. Those driving practice courses those staked paths should help. Since yellow nutsedge is the big challenge and can not be effectively cultivated |I did some research and found very few herbicides that control sedges, but there are some. I get some Sandea (halosufuron) for rice, beans and corn and Dual (Metolachor) for the potatoes, vegetables, onions, soybeans and peanuts). Finally we should be more prepared to plant in time the next time. Last season I arrived here and the potato seed arrived at the same time without a good place to store it and the ground was not worked and new workers and lack of appropriate machinery it was a wonder we got anything.

One last thing to improve is the fertilizer. Tropical soil with high rainfall usually have very poor soils which is counterintuitive as things look so lush but the nutrients are stored in the plants as the high rainfall washes out the nutrients from the soil. The soil tests show lower levels than I’ve even seen in most nutrients except potassium that is ok. Soil acidity up north is not good, but not in the 4 range like down south where aluminum toxicity is a serious issue. Applying lime is the usual solution to acid soils, but its expensive here and internal transport is also very expensive and unreliable so in the long run you need to find a solution to the soils that doesn’t involve apply large amounts of unsustainable inputs. IN the past they have applied NPK 15-15-15 which is what most people do as a default - throw a little of everything at it and hope for the best. I got some DAP ordered which is 18-46-0 so more of the needed phosphorus, no unneeded potassium and this fertilizer is not going to add to the acidity problem like other types. Crops that need more nitrogen like Corn we can just add some Urea.

I’m getting a little technical now, enough for now.

Traditionally people grow a few potatoes in this area by first clearing the land and oiling all the roots and stems and grass in a pile and burning it. This burning releases all the stored potassium and phosphorus in the roots and grass which the potatoes need. The soil turns red after the burning because the heat also burns off the organic matter and nitrogen in the soil as well. This process works for this season, but is very destructive in the long run. If you have a lot of free ground it works, but large farms can not be started in a new location every year so they need new processes. Then squash in planted on the edge and potatoes on theses small hills.

At the end of harvest was the 15th of August - Independence day here. Every year the President picks one village to pour a lot of money to turn into a City. Puts in roads, new government buildings, street lights, drainage and showy things like the over the top full size sports stadium complete with night lights. The odd thing is with water being such a problem up north drinking water wasn’t on the list of projects. This year it was in Djambala which is 40 minutes from the potato farm and 2013 was the year of the potato so we had a part at the celebrations. There is a parade for the president. The farm guys marched in the parade along with one of the big tractors and a trailer with1 ton of potatoes (literally) on the new wide boulevard. They didn’t want a white guy in the parade, but I did meet the presidents wife earlier and gave her potatoes. There was many groups marching along with some traditional Teke groups and these clowns.