Morphological Characterisation

KGA staff  on job attachment .

 Sevie Lausao

Six participants from the  three western pacific co untry’s  of Papua New Guinea,Vanuatu and Solomon Islands had recently completed a  two months “Job attachment programe organised by the Western Pacific-NARI-EU-ACP S&T Programme in PNG .

They were divided into two groups of three people with each group undergoing a month training attachment on the PNG National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI) sitesat Aiyura in the Eeastern Highlands Province, Lae in Morobe province and Laloki in the southern region.

Our first month was spent in Laloki station with hands on training on Collection, Conservation, Characterization and Management of Plant Genetic Resources, says Severino Lausao of KGA.

As part of the field attachment program, they also visited places as Abau and Bereina districts in the central province. In these places they collected and observed the drought and salinity tolerant crop varieties  such as bananas, etc. They also visited another village called Gavone which is 3 kilometers from Kupiano station, where they witnessed a leaf roller on bananas leafs, which is a major problem in that area. At the Markham valley to Madang highway and Bogia areas, they had done surveys on beatlenut palms. Markhamvalley used to be one of the main beatlenut producing area and supplies beatlenut to the highlands region and Lae on the coast, before it was damaged by pest like deases. We collected beatlenut leafs in 14 selected villages and did DNA on the samples, says Mr Severino.

What really strike me is the importance on conservation and management.  I found the training had really broaden my knowledge on what to do out in the field, especially with the farmers and those that I had talked or share with them, Mr Severino added. I wish to express my thanks to my organisation (KGA) and NARI for the training opportunity, which will enable me to do my job better. 

By Sevie Lausao

Claudine and Thecla preparing reminder letters for PMN members to renew subcriptions

The 3014 members of the PMN should expect to receive a letter from PMN in the next few weeks if they have not received it already. Included in the letter is an application form for the 2012 PMN farmers conference to be held in February at Visale on Guadalcanal.  Also included is a reminder for PMN members to renew their annual subscriptions of $15 per year.  Members who renew are entitled to access services from kastom gaden including free seeds and planting materials from the seed bank, access to training and workshops and attendance at events such as the upcoming farmers conference. For more information please contact the PMN Coordinator Thecla Limai at Kastom Gaden.

Ms Mary Joyce able to visit 13 gardens, basically to provide advice and support to farmers on pest and disease management.

The program designed to reach out to farmers that never attend pest and disease management training.  Ms Joyce and share her knowledge with farmers on about pest and disease.  Over the week, Ms Joyce visited 35 farmers.  Ms Joyce highlighted that most of the farmers she met are women.  In the garden, farmer shows affected plants, crop a as well as few pest samples.

Lucy, a farmer said that in my garden I had come across many sick crops and vegetables, thus, I have no idea to control the pest problem in my garden. The learning I receive from the trainer help me to know what type of pest do most of the damage in my garden. I also learn that there are cultural and soft chemical like chilli, ash, tobacco leaves that can help to kill pest also I will now start to monitor the pest in my garden.  Farmers also express that such training should carried to our rural community given the fact that pest and disease is now becoming a major threat to food security.

Ms Joyce said that taro leaf blight, bobone and alome are largely presented in many taro gardens. She said that if farmers are not careful to control the spread of the taro diseases, then farmers are expected to experience loss in taro production. Leaf rust is found in peanut gardens.

Sigatoka (banana disease) is commonly found in most banana gardens,  shoot borer in slippery cabbage and white peach scale on cassava largely presented in most gardens.

The topic covers over the five days taught farmers to understanding the difference between pest and disease, describe types of damages caused by pest and disease to crop plants, understanding the life cycle of different pest and taught on different stages of their life cycle that causes damages to plants, diagnosing and culturally controls.

The trainer also taught farmers how to do mulching, composting, crop rotation. Such practices plays an significant role towards soil improvement.     The villages visited by Ms Joyce are Togori, Tawani, Maraniu, Holy Pool, Arohane, Waimagarisi, Maniviriviri, Naororo, Paoa and Naohe.

A similar training was carried out in  West Are’ are from 29^th October to 3^rd of November 2011, 27 farmers participated.

During the program farmers share their experience of post-harvest and handling losses. They stated that most of their produce go bad because of the following:

• Produce is damaged by seawater
• When they load the produce, part of produce is squeezed because of the pressure caused by bad loading
• Because of lack of crates, they sometimes mix one produce with other crops. It causes the loss of perishable produce.
• There is not enough shade in the Gizo market. So some of their produce is damaged by heat of sun.

After the discussion, sample crates were given to the group to evaluate. The crates were bought from a Chinese Shop in Honiara and cost about SBD$179.00/crate. The group members gave postive feedback about the types of crate handed and signed a commitment form to use the crate and give feedback to the Marketing Component after three months.

Sucessfully run from 3rd October to 7th October 2011 at Burn Creek Training Venue, the training attracts 14 lead team comprising of 8 representative from Malaita, Western , Guadalcanal, Makira, Honiara provinces and 6 staff from Head office.

The training was conducted by Andrew Sale. The topics covered were value chain, how to conduct value chain, value chain analysis and cost along the value chain.

The participants appreciate the value of  this training as it helps them understand their roles in the  local value chain and that agricultural productions should be market oriented.

22 September 2011

Respected local NGO, Kastom Gaden Association and the Australian Government have signed a three-year agreement that will provide thousands of families throughout Solomon Islands with improved varieties of food crops and advice on more effective farming methods and family nutrition.

The SBD20.18 million (AUD 2.53 million) agreement extends previous Australian support over the past two years for Kastom Gaden’s five-year program called Strengthening Food Security for Rural Livelihoods in Solomon Islands Program.

“Our program aims to improve the amount of quality food grown in rural areas and to support income generation activities for Solomon Islanders”, said Kastom Gaden Manager, Mr Clement Hadosaia

AusAID Counsellor for Development Cooperation, Peter O’Connor, said Kastom Gaden was an organisation that improved the lives of Solomon Islanders by using local ideas and local expertise delivered at the local level.

“Kastom Gaden is helping Solomon Islands to adapt their agriculture to the changing environment through improved methods and more productive crop and livestock varieties,” he said. “Importantly, it delivers its services at the village level where more than 80 percent of Solomon Islanders live.”

Kastom Gaden supports Solomon Islanders through its Plant Material Network and by providing training programs for people in both rural and urban areas. The Plant Material Network provides members with improved seed and rootstock varieties and vital agricultural information.

Kastom Gaden works through partnerships with around 100 community based organisations. Some are formal organisations like churches and Rural Training Centres, Others are community-based organisations such as the Rokotanikeni Womens’ Association in southern Malaita.

Kastom Gaden provides training programs to these organisations on subjects such as plant and livestock husbandry, farming methods, pest and disease management, nutrition, health and use of simple technologies suited to local conditions. Services reach some of the most isolated areas of the country.

As part of it nutritional health component, Kastom Gaden supports a child and maternal health nutrition project with the Ministry of Health and Medical Services. The project is run out ofSasamuqaHospitalin Choiseul andAtoifiHospitalin central Malaita, both chosen because they service areas of several thousands of people where food security and infant nutrition is a concern.

Under the new agreement with AusAID, Kastom Gaden will provide training over the next three years to an estimated 11,000 people while increasing the number of households with access to its basic services through the planting network to at least 30,000.

“Our work is seeing young people in provincial areas across the country getting involved in farming and selling their produce to markets,” Mr Hadosaia said. “This creates a local and healthy food source, and gives young people the chance to improve their own lives with their own hands.”

Kastom Gaden also works with a range of international partners such as theAustralianCenterfor International Agricultural Research and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

This new agreement with AusAID continues more than ten years of Australian support to Kastom Gaden. The funding is provided under Australia’s country-to-country aid program with the Solomon Islandswhich is called the Partnership for Development.

The Partnership for Development is a government-to-government agreement that focuses on areas like health, education, livelihoods and transport infrastructure.

Kastom Gaden provides basic information and advice via newsletters and holds a weekly radio program on SIBC.

For more information about Kastom Gaden and to join its Plant Material Network contact Mr Clement Hadosaiaon Phone 39331 or email clementh@kastomgaden.org

Kastom Gaden Manager, Mr Clement Hadosaia and AusAID Development Counsellor Peter O’Connor inspect seedling trays at Kastom Gaden’s main office and plant distribution center in Honiara.

Visits was made to one of the famous farming business area the one village one product in Oita, this village is famous for its products. which is an interesting place and other places who do the integrated approach for the development.

A visit was also made to Horishima war memorial museum.

I would like to thank JICA for their support in making this training possible for me to attend which will help woman in the rural areas, in income generation: Also thank you to all staff for the support in making my training a success, not forgetting Sr. Catherine who has helped with the component while I’m away on this training.

Photo album

Group role at OISCA training centre

Party at OISCA meeting

OISCA trainees and JICA training with School children at OISCA

Some of the participants wants to try this in their country like PNG, Africa, tonga, and asian countries, which they think they can maybe modified it so that is adapted to their countries needs.

Thanks to Oisca Director  Kakinuma for giving us the opportunity to teach other woman from other countries and also for Yukiko who have fly from Tokyo to Shikoku island for us to do the training.

participants of the stove training

participants of the training with the stove made during the training

Participants moulding clay for the stove.

Yukiko and I with participants

Participants looked at what they are already doing which included a mix of household surveys, story collection, taking photos and record keeping. These qualitative and quantitative tools were then combined into results assesment frameworks for each of KGAs components:  Capacity Building and Networking, Women and Nutritional Health, Small Livestock, Organic Farming.  Turusuala Community Based Training Centre, Rokotanikeni Womens Association and Vanga RTC also joined the training.  Staff are now busy using the results chains they mapped out in the training to complete their frameworks. Participants learned that results assesment is very important for organisational learning – improving programs and planning new activities based on what were the actual benefits of earlier work.  It also will help KGA to report to its donors and other stakeholders.

The training was facilitated by TerraCircle’s Tony Jansen. TerraCircle has assisted KGA to develop an information management system and a household survey of PMN members as well as a database to track members and distribution of planting materials.  This system is now being expanded to include expanded results assessment activities.

An Example of a results chain developed in the training - this one for the Marketing Component of Kastom Gaden. The chain links activities through to final goals to improve rural livelihoods.

The woman learned how to build a nursery and how to do soil mixing of germination and seedling boxes, and also who to do transplanting of the seedlings to the field.

WN will continue to support the woman’s group in advise and further training by Janet and catherine.

The woman are very happy to attend the training to learn how to make sup sup garden close to the house that serves them from buying at the market. They are also interested in other trainings based on their needs.

Woman planting seedlings in their garden

Janet Rose show woman how to build nursery

Demonstration of germination of seeds

Sr. catherine explain about mulching to woman at the their garden.