102 before the programme started. Temporary workers were hired mostly during planting and weeding stage. The 71.4% officers indicated that dry-land farmers have not created any jobs;
rather family members are the only labour source.
4.15.8 Support to beneficiaries by Extension Officers
All Extension Officers showed positive response when coming to supporting farmers. They said farmers were given full support through conducting mass meeting, visits and forming commodity groups.
103 fallow land were noticed. Above all, there was land that was properly ploughed and planted with a good sign of good yield .Some famers were very committed to their farming.
4.17.2 Mechanization
The land was ploughed as visible in Figure 33, without following contours. The tractor driver just drove and ploughed the ground without any regard for the contours, natural flow of water and existing layout of farm. In addition after ploughing more uneven places were created with even more ditches that will need to be levelled or they will be waterlogged. This is problematic because farmers spend years to get farms well-structured and manage slope contours to minimise runoff, secondly this lack of professionalism when ploughing causes more work for farmers who now need to fix the land.
Figure 33: ME tractor at work and the poor performance of the work
This problem is caused by the employment of tractor drivers who are not familiar with proper ploughing methods. This problem would have been easily avoided if training was provided by the service provider. The reality as observed by the researcher is that not only is the driver creating ridges he is making it difficult to control water flow in the farm.
4.17.3 Good and poor managed farms i. Weeding
104 There are many definitions of weeds central to all of them is that weeds are plants which are out of plant and unintentionally sown. The main characteristic of a weed is that it is usually unwanted grows on its own and the bad aspects of it outweigh the good. Figure 34 depicts weeds growing around cabbages.
Figure 34: Poor crop management by ME beneficiaries with focus on weeding
The picture (Figure 34) clearly shows the poor weeding practices observed in on one of the beneficiary‟s field. The field was planted with cabbages in neat rows, but due to lack of proper maintenance weeds are starting to spread. This will lead to a competition between the plants and the weeds for nutrients and water; causing the poor development of the crops and at the end poor overall yield.
ii. Good crop management
Good crop management maximises the potential of crops and farms as a whole in producing maximum yield. Although not the only determent of good yield, it is certainly a factor. Figure 35 shows a beneficiary farmer who exercised good crop management.
105 Figure 35: Good performing farm
There were some farmers who were flourishing such as the image above depicting maize plants of one of the beneficiaries (her permission was sought to use this picture with her in it). These farms show great potential and were very well maintained. When interviewed they indicated that they are doing farming on their own, not waiting for ME programme, they said they were disappointed several times. Furthermore they stressed that farmers need to give their farms attention and take farming as a business and not just an activity for the jobless.
4.17.4 Organic fertilization
“Organic fertiliser is fertiliser that is derived from plant or animal matter” (The free dictionary 2015). The crop residue is ploughed back to the ground to increase soil quality and nutrients, which will in turn help the plantations, grow healthier and need less artificial fertilizers.
106 Figure 36: Crop residue ploughed back into the ground
Figure 36, shows a field ploughed with crop residue from previous season‟s plantation worked into the ground. This process helps restore soil fertility by recycling nutrients from plant residue.
This practice uses already available resource to farmers (cop residue) as an organic fertilizer reducing the need to use huge quantities if artificial fertilizers and saving in terms of input costs.
This practice shows a positive element to skills development by beneficiaries and good crop and farm management.
4.17.5 Seed and fertilizer distribution
Seeds and fertilizers are the main inputs along with mechanization offered by the programme.
The researcher requested to observe when the distribution of inputs is conducted. Orinoco C has 141 beneficiary farmers which were given 25 x 25 kg bags of maize seeds, 9 x 25 kg bags of ground nuts and 13 x 25 kg bags of dried beans. Which were split between 141 beneficiaries each having an average of one hectare sized farms. The farmers in the scheme came together to share their allocation of seeds and fertilizers this is portrayed in Figure 37.
107 Figure 37: Beneficiaries sharing seeds and fertilizers
However, it was unfortunate to witness the very little in which every beneficiary gets allocated due to insufficient inputs. The beneficiaries ended up using cups to divide the different seeds per individual. This observation speaks to the shortages of supply versus demand of the inputs and raises the question whether the programme is of real consequence to its beneficiaries; if a person with more than a hectare of land is to be allocated only a cup of seeds and a plastic bag of fertilizers what significant difference can this make?
4.18 UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEW FROM THE BENEFICIARIES