BACK TO THE BUNDINGS

A warm welcome to Mr Mohamed Turay returning to Hope Sakuma from JICA as work begins in earnest readying our rice paddies for rainy season. Long-time readers will recall Mohamed’s sterling work helping train seven Sanda villages in intensive IVS and we’re glad to welcome him back to help us reach optimum rice production with our low-cost, high-yield #Azolla–based system.

Expertly trained by the Japan International Coperation Agency, Mohamed is helping identify and help remedy some issues with our paddies and bunds ahead of rainy season to make sure we get the very best from our intensive Rice-Azolla-Duck-Tilapia system.

Bringing seven experienced farmers from nearby Gbinti to supplement our regular team, who set to making impressive progress levelling four paddies on their first day, marking out and digging internal bunds in the larger ones to make them all of even size to ensure good water distribution and retention which, in turn, will help us get an even distribution of Azolla and sufficient water depth for our tilapia.

Day two, Mohamed from JICA and team Gbinti continue their good work levelling more paddies, building up internal bunds and spending time to correct the peripheral canal, digging it deeper and wider for good water circulation which can then be let in and out of individual paddies as needed. And we hear the Gbinti farmers like the Hope Sakuma farm, the land and are keen to learn our integrated Azolla-duck-tilapia–rice system.

The Gbinti teams third day sees a third of our peripheral canal widened and deepened and a third of our paddies levelled and subdivided in just three days. The team like the idea of extending the canal and paddies all the way round the island and vow to return under the expert guidance of Mohamed from JICA.

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