My throat is killing me since I got the epipleural bone (i.e., "Y-bone") of a tiger fish crosswise in my gullet at Yonas' (my doppelganger for the Mongu District Farmers' Association) going-away party last weekend; consequently, I'm guzzling tea and battling sleep. Speaking of sleep, it appears our days of lovely sleeping weather are drawing to a close. Though the temperatures are still somewhat brisk in the morning, there is less smoke on the horizon in the morning and evenings, which suggests to me that air temperatures are on the rise.
Sigh.
To put a point on it, I don't want to type much tonight, so instead, you can read my work journal from Mozambique! Enjoy, and soon you too will be sleepy.
Lights out and now I lay me down to sleep ....
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Gorongosa National Park – Buffer Zone
CA Consultation
Trip Notes / Journal (July 10-16, 2011):
Carl T. Wahl
July 10, 2011 (Sunday)
1. Flew from Lusaka to Joburg (07:15 – 09:00)
2. Flew from Joburg to Beira (11:30 – 13:30)
3. Visa / etc. at BEW
4. Transport from BEW to Gorongosa (14:30 – 17:30)
a. Dropped off Joy Yu (filmmaker) at Chitengo
b. Returned to CEC by 18:30; dropped.
5. Met with Marty Sampson (MS)
a. Briefed by MS on project basics and schedule for next week.
b. Ate dinner, set up for evening
July 11, 2011 (Monday)
1. Woke at 05:15
2. Waited for bus to Chitengo from 06:00 – 07:10
3. Took bus from CEC to Chitengo (about 35 minutes)
4. Breakfast
5. Skype conference call with Robert Layng (USAID, Maputo) [08:20 – 09:00]; Covered the finer points of what we were looking for in the project, such as the CA potential, potential for market access, market assessment for Villa Gorongosa, etc.
6. Introductions with GNP staff (within Chitengo) [ongoing throughout the day]
7. Guided visit to Vino (sic) to observe local agriculture practices / conditions
a. Observed numerous agroforestry species
i. Faidherbia albida (isolated trees in floodplain of Pungue River)
ii. Sesbania macrantha (along main channel of Pungue River)
iii. Cajunus cajun (appears to a part of local farming systems (as in coastal plains along highway from Beira to GNP)) … extensive planting, appears to be both white [predominant] and red varieties).
b. Observed the winter cropping of maize in floodplains adjacent to the Pungue. Most of maize was monocropped, with two exceptions where beans were intercropped with the maize (one was common beans, the other was cowpeas).
c. Briefly interviewed a woman who was threshing beans at her household; white [kidney] beans, bush variety, cropped with the maize after the first weeding. Cropping was intentional, but knowledge appeared to be inherited.
d. Soils in general appear to be alluvial (i.e., fluvisols / Vertisols) … basic soil texturing showed high amounts of silt. Layered appearance, little aggregation in tilled soils.
e. Maize health appeared alright … deep green plants in shallow basins, but variance noted particularly away from streams. Difficult to ascertain whether it was a nutrient or a water deficiency, but guess was former given the yellowed color of the entire plant.
f. Maize seed appears to be saved from year-to-year. Guide (Fernando) remarked that generally, healthy cobs from strong plants were selected and hung in kitchen shelters for wood smoke to discourage insect predation. Seeds are selected from “fat” parts of cob; tops are retained for food.
g. Most maize appeared to be white.
h. Noted boiled Vigna subterranea (bambara nuts or “nyimu”) in small market near school. Apparently, only served in this fashion; not much dry nuts.
Notes: Vino might serve as a demonstration area given proximity to Chitengo; would make a good site for higher profile, short-time visitors. However, veracity of plot(s) as farmer demos might questionable due to the differences from the buffer area nearer Mt. Gorongosa: soils, flooding capacity, rainfall regime, etc.
8. Returned to Chitengo around 13:00 (lunch).
9. Continued with introductions and discussions from 14 – 15; met with Mateus, GNP executive director; briefly discussed the upcoming days’ programs around Mwansa, Vunduzi, etc.
10. Returned to CEC after 16:00; did email and wrote up day’s report.
11. Returned after 18:00hrs. to Villa Gorongosa [VG] (arrive 19:00).
12. Ate dinner with GRP director of reforestation, Mr. Mugeura. Amazing resource for tree knowledge, had excellent conversation with him over dinner.
July 12, 2011 (Tuesday)
1. Woke at 06:00
2. After breakfast, was picked up by GRP driver to go to the GRP office in VG by 08:00.
3. Met at office with Mr. Mugeura, Ignacio Tomas (Forestry Technician), Tongai Castillo (Science Technician). Briefly discussed day’s activities.
4. By 8:20, on road up to Vunduzi area
a. Observations from vehicle:
i. Population density is significantly higher than I expected.
ii. Most land cultivated.
iii. Standing crops observed were sorghum, pigeon pea, and sunflower.
iv. Significant slope variation, but very little level land (slope < 10%). Cultivation up the mountainside on the Vunduzi (east) slope appears to be limited due to the steep face, particularly in the portion that “hooks” around the upper reaches of the Vunduzi stream.
v. Homesteads appear to be distributed along the road, but not necessarily clustered.
b. Stopped by one nursery for the mountain’s reforestation project. Large numbers of indigenous tree seedlings (at least 20 separate groups of 700 seedlings apiece).
i. Observed the soil conditions in nearby area of tree regrowth; significant amounts of organic matter; texture appeared to be sandy loam or loam conditions. Soil very friable, appeared well-drained, and had very good aggregate structure.
ii. Significant amounts of Mucuna purpurens [sic] (“Velvet bean”, or locally known as “Buffalo beans”) growing wild in the area. However, the beans appear to be almost noxious [invasive] in nature, and are unfortunately, the type that features a very hairy / velvety exterior, causing significant irritation if brought in contact with skin.
c. Met with one of the forestry extension agents along the road (the same one who oversees the nursery. We went with him (along with his compatriot, another local farmer)
i. Farming same area since 1994 [17 years!] Constant cropping of mainly maize / sorghum.
ii. Some education extension done by FHI (ask from Marty) in 2009
1. Taught to plant maize in lines; not to intermix.
2. Similar to CA with people instructed to bury leaves.
3. People to follow instructions closely.
iii. People double-cropping maize and sorghum simultaneously
1. No fertilizer used.
2. Maize planted in November with first rains; sorghum intercropped in following week.
3. Maize harvested in April (4 months); sorghum harvested in July / August (currently being harvested).
4. Maize / sorghum seed all heirloom (observed later at mother-in-law’s village); white maize saved based off size of cobs, as well as durability of endocarp.
5. Maize grown both as food and as market crop; excess is sold. Sorghum valued especially as food crop.
6. Crop planted in essentially zero-tillage system; little soil agitation other than opening planting holes and weeding.
7. Maize weeded thrice; sorghum another time.
8. Stover on field burned after sorghum harvest (August / September)
9. Weeding done by entire family, plus hired labour (farmer is paid small stipend by GRP through reforestation project).
iv. Soil very good on field (dark sandy loam, decent aggregation), but remarkable heterogeneity in soils; observed pure ferrolsols in adjacent field that was slightly higher, then deep rich loam adjacent to a neighbor’s house that was used for sweet potato cultivation. Farmer mentioned that field with ferralsolic soils could now longer produce maize and they were only growing sorghum. They appeared to have wild ginger growing on them, a usual sign of acidity. Farmers indicated that drainage on most soils seemed quite good; didn’t seem to have waterlogged conditions.
v. Pigeon peas grown on field boundaries and in some pure stands; market value for crop very good and people increasing hectarage. Market value of green peas (unshelled) was 40 meticais for a 20kg bag; for shelled, dried peas, the value was 60 meticais for 1 gallon. Observed at least three varieties of pigeon peas, mottled, red, and white. Fairly extensive cultivation.
vi. Some cassava, but only isolated along field boundaries … used for paying workers / hired labour.
5. Returned from Vunduzi around 14:00-14:30; ate lunch.
6. Had a minor emergency … lost Visa card, so had to call the US and cancel.
7. Did internet around 16:00 just briefly.
8. Visited market area between 16:30 and 17:30.
a. Interesting setup; very similar to Zambia, with spatial clustering of wholesalers, goods, etc.; for example, fish and small amounts of bread are all sold within a central shed.
b. Local people appear to purchase packaged foodstuffs from large [South Asian] wholesalers, then retail in smaller “tuck” shops.
c. Couldn’t find peanut butter … interesting. Asked Marty whether people liked to eat it … he said people loved roasted groundnuts, but there was never very much around.
d. Appears that people are selling lots of beans (white & sugar) and fresh maize informally.
July 13, 2011 (Wednesday)
1. Woke at 06:30; not feeling well (stomach bug).
2. After breakfast, was picked up by GRP driver to go to the GRP office in VG just after 08:00. Today, we were accompanied by Mr. Maguera, as he wanted to see the forest nursery in Nhariroza.
3. Went up to the west face of the mountain to two different sites:
a. Flavio’s field
i. Went to Muguera’s brother-in-law’s (Flavio’s) field. Trip to field through dry woodland with very little farming (soil appeared quite dry, leached clay). Most of tree cover was murula trees; all cultivated areas were near to the base of the mountain where soils appeared richer.
ii. Stopped and looked at Flavio’s field … he (or his workers) had tilled the soil using a tractor (large >5 hectare) field. Soil appeared to be oxisol / ultisol; rich A layer over hard B layer.
iii. Interviewed a farmer [Samwell Gideon] who stayed in the small village adjacent to Flavio’s field; he told us the following about his fields higher up the mountain.
1. Little digging done in fields; less than 10cm deep to plant seeds.
2. Crops are maize, sorghum, pumpkins, and cucumber. Maize is grown by itself; latter three are mixed.
3. Residues burned annually prior to planting.
4. Fields switched annually; didn’t admit to opening new fields.
5. Assesses yields according to uniformity of crop growth at stages of growth and color. Sometimes assesses based off yields, particularly the measures of shelled maize in traditional bins.
6. Interesting note on land use / land tenure … said that children (young men) usually struck out on their own and cleared new land after getting married. Asked him whether people inherited land; got a rather confusing answer that it could be inherited, but usually only one child took the land over (i.e., the land didn’t get split up).
b. Observed the junction market on the confluence of the road from Flavio’s area and the highway leading from Villa Gorongosa. Potatoes were the predominant feature, selling for 100 meticais per basin (approximately 1.5 – 2 gallons); most of them came directly from the slopes of the mountain 5km away. Beans were also for sale, notably “sugar” beans (mottled colored, sweet beans).
c. Nhariroza
i. Visited the tree nursery; again, very large, well-maintained nursery with something like 15,000 to 20,000 seedlings.
ii. Moved further (3km) down the road, which though somewhat steep and slippery in places, is used by minibuses and trucks at least daily.
iii. Parked the truck and descended by foot into a stream valley that paralleled the mountain slope running roughly north to south. Not sure whether it drains into GNP, but their was a significant population density and impact on the hillsides was apparent; there were few remaining trees except along the stream banks, and uncropped areas were covered with thick elephant grass.
iv. Cropped areas appeared to be similar to the norm we saw the previous day; sorghum, with the maize having been harvested previously. Most of the fields appeared to follow natural boundaries (e.g., streams that bisect saddles along the slopes), which leaves a sort of no-mans-land boundary that is uncropped, fortuitous for controlling erosion. However, at least 30% of field covered the saddles, with no cover over the drainage. For the most part, the rows appeared to run across the contour of the slope, but tough to tell whether it was intentional or not.
v. Aside from the sorghum which was standing dead, the valleys of most of the slopes appeared to be cropped to [Irish] potatoes, grown using surface [furrow] irrigation. We crossed the stream and interviewed some of the farmers growing potatoes in the main cleft of the valley.
1. Potatoes are planted originally in furrows; after they germinate and reach 10-20 cm, the plants are buried and irrigated between furrows.
2. Furrows along which potatoes are planted run roughly along the contour, likely as a means of controlling the flow of water.
3. Main channels run straight down the slope; farmers use large stones to impede water and force it into the furrows.
4. Upslope areas were used for potatoes; downslope for brassicas and onions.
5. The outflow from the main channels was back into the stream. There appeared to be no reservoir or check dam.
6. Farmers said that potatoes could be cropped from sometime in March through August; there was a narrow chance they could get two crops. They mentioned the farmers further upslope (above 700m by our reckoning) could grow potatoes year-round. [These fields were readily apparent and could be seen extending up to the cloud line, which was at or around 800m]
7. Farmers said that it was FHI and the district agricultural office that had shown them how to grow the potatoes, distributed seed, etc., about three years ago.
8. Farmers were provided (I’m not sure if it was a loan scheme or what) with what they call “N-P-K”, a mineral fertilizer similar to Compound D with an N-P-K rating of 12-24-12. It is applied at a rate of two (2) 20 liter jerry can lids in-between each planting station.
9. Pests and blight didn’t seem to be a problem.
10. Farmers grew the potatoes for the market, but they weren’t too thrilled about the prices. When I asked them why they grew them if the prices weren’t good, and got the expected answer that low prices are better than no price at all.
vi. Topsoil (A layer) at Nhariroza is categorically the best soil I have ever seen in my life. Using hand texturing, I figured it to be either a loam or silt loam. Black, light, and seems fairly well trained. It varies in depth from 4 to 8 inches. Rapid transition into subsoil (B layer), heavy red silty clay.
vii. Returned to Villa Gorongosa by 15:00 for a late lunch, to type notes, etc.
July 14, 2011 (Thursday)
1. Awoke early, packed for trip around northern edge of park to Muanza.
2. After withdrawing money, fueling the vehicle, getting food, etc., we departed Villa Gorongosa at 8:40 hours up the Vunduzi / Casa Banana Road.
3. Clearer skies afforded a better view of Mount Gorongosa today. Encroachment on the southern / eastern slopes appears to be limited due to the steeper faces than those on the western slope. In some cases, the faces appear to be sheer and/or bare rock. Observed a great deal of water coming off the west slope.
4. After passing the Vunduzi River and the site of our visits on Tuesday, we rather swiftly (within 5km) entered a significantly different soil landscape as we turned northeast (away from the mountain). We passed a number of shallow, deforested valleys in which similar cropping practices as nearer to the mountain were apparent. However, these areas featured a much thinner, pebble / cobble dominated topsoil with significantly less inherent organic matter. The relatively recent appearance (within the past year) of the felled trees and stumps indicated that unlike the rich soils we observed in the previous two days, the area’s soil had very little inherent fertility and is likely agronomically fit for only planting trees. My suspicion is that these fields were cleared as a result of population pressure and a lack of available land in the richer soils next to the mountain.
These areas continued intermittently for some distance up to the two isolated enselbergs 15-20 km northeast of Vunduzi almost to the Casa Banana junction.
5. After Casa Banana, we the road straightened significantly, and the soil regime again changed. From the enselbergs to the point at which the road angles across the Mecombeze stream, soils were ferralsolic [oxisols] in nature, with a deep red color. The landscape was also significantly flatter, with fields that were evenly distributed on either side of the road, and were dominated by sorghum that had been recently harvested; the stover was simply left in situ for later burning, and the heads were stacked on stick-and-fiber tables in the fields. In a few cases, we also saw harvested, shocked sesame drying in the fields. Pigeon peas were also evident, but not nearly in the quantities observed by Villa Gorongosa or Vunduzi. Fields were significantly bigger than in Vunduzi; most looked to be over 2.5 hectares in size.
Along the way, we stopped by a post for the park rangers / patrol, whom we greeted and chatted with for a few minutes. The size of the trees (Africanus str., Tamarindus indicus) suggests that the underlying soil fertility and moisture might be considerable.
6. Following the Mecombeze stream crossing, we entered a fairly unpopulated area of marsh; after 10 or 20km, we re-entered a miombo forest. Soon after, we encountered the first of a number of tractor-trailers hauling logs out of the area. Mr. Mageura informed me that these were mature pod mahogany (Afzelia quansis) being trucked out for processing and export (notable at this juncture was the hiatus in Mr. Maguera’s usually jovial chatting and whistling; he appeared remarkably saddened by the logging). These trucks and logging operations continued until the junction of the road with the railway line that leads eventually to Muanza.
7. The last leg of our journey to Muanza was through a series of forest concessions that roughly parallel the eastern boundary of the park. This was one of the most intact and extensive tract of miombo woodland I have seen outside of Northwestern Zambia. Aside from a few trucks working on road rehabilitation, a camp for minesweepers, and a few other isolated camps, we drove through unbroken, lonely forest. At 12:30, the forest abruptly parted and we arrived in Muanza.
8. We acquired a room at the Tianshian Guesthouse on the north side of town and ordered lunch. However, lunch did not arrive by 13:50, so we departed in order to meet with the district agricultural officer and the local extension officer by 14:00. Our meeting was more of a meet-and-greet, as the officer is himself new to the area. Mr. Mageura introduced us and they spoke of the upcoming relocation of the fishing community within the park (Lake Urema) to an area just south and east of Muanza.
9. After the meeting, we loaded into the vehicle and visited the relocation sites. The first was parallel to and east of the railroad tracks; the second was west of the railroad and also contained the future housing sites for the people being relocated.
We dug around in the farming sites, both in the flat and from the termite mounds interspersed throughout the landscape. The soil is basically leached sand to a depth of 40 or 50 cm, under which is a heavy, gleyed clay layer. On closer inspection, I detected oxidization along the root channels, indicating a possibility of water logging. The termite mounds also showed a significant amount of almost pure clay. The top 10 cm of the soil in the forested areas was considerably darker with organic matter; however, in a field we visited that had been cleared of trees and cropped for only a single season (to maize), this organic layer was at least half as deep. I suspect the increased sunlight and rain intensity helped reduce the organic matter significantly.
We chatted with the agriculture officers about the possibilities for the crops in the areas; I suggested that root crops (e.g., cassava and sweet potato) might be good options (we saw significantly more of these in Muanza than anywhere else). They were warm to the idea of cassava, as supposedly, there is a scheme afoot to chip the cassava roots and grind it for a tapioca-style pudding. Also, I got the idea that agricultural inputs were not really practical in the current state of affairs, likely given the distance and the relative new state of the government posts.
10. We retired to the guest house at 17:00.
July 15, 2011 (Friday)
1. We met with Graham Taylor immediately after breakfast. Mr. Taylor is a Zimbabwean ex-pat farmer who moved to Mozambique three years ago. Mostly, we discussed the relative merits of conservation methods, his suggestions, and his ideas for boosting both agriculture productivity and soil conservation in the area. We also discussed some of the finer points of marketing various farm products and ways to increase the farmgate price. Interesting conversation; seems that there is considerable potential for sesame and pigeon pea if the crops can be bulked.
We also went over some of the finer points of his proposal to promote conservation agriculture and agri-business; my impression is that from his point of view, he will do the work with or without our help, but it might influence where he works and how fast he can get started.
2. Visited the sites from yesterday again with Mr. Taylor; he suggested that some experimentation take place to see how well sesame and pigeon pea would grow in the area.
3. We departed from Muanza for Beira at 11:30. Not much to mention other than that some 20 km south of Muanza, the forest gives way to farmed lands and the population density increases rather precipitously.
4. We arrived in Beira by 14:00; after lunch, parted ways with Marty and Mr. Mageura, who left me at the Tivoli Hotel in Beira around 15:30.
July 16, 2011 (Friday)
1. Returned to Johannesburg, South Africa on the 13:30 out of Beira.
2. Returned to Lusaka, Zambia on the 18:55 out of Johannesburg.
July 19, 2011 (Tuesday)
1. Returned to Senanga, Zambia.
