Headed Home

It been a great experience but now its time to head home. I am in the hotel in Accura today. I have a flight tonight to Amsterdam.  From there I will fly to Salt Lake City and then to Fresno, arriving Sunday evening. Somehow I will have to overcome jet-lag and be back at me job with AGCO Monday morning. Thanks for following along and I will add some additional photos and comment when I get home and nearer a better internet connection.

Presentation Day

At the end of each assignment, each ACDI-VOCA volunteer is required to give a power point presentation their assignment to the local office for USAID. There happen to be three volunteers this day. Roger from Iowa gave a presentation on his assignment " Farm Machinery Repair" John from Minnesota gave a presentation on his assignment "Bee Keeping Co-op". And I did mine on "Center Pivot Irrigation"

Volunteers and ACDI-VOCA staff

More Photos From the Farm

The internet is incredibly slow today, but here are some additional photos from the farm

Discussing planting plans for a new crop of maize

Center pivot irrigation system ready for use

Rural Village

My Host

I thought you might like to meet my host for the project, Mr. Mallam Seidu. I moved out of the hotel that I was staying in because it was overbooked and stayed three days in Mallam's home. A great experience !





Mr. Mallam Seidu and myself at the USAID Advance office, Tamale, Ghana

Helping the Neighbors

Late in the afternoon we ventured next door to see how the neighbors were doing with their planting.
They plant maize (corn) the traditional way during the rainy season. We decided to a try ourselves.

Preparation for Planting

Getting the equipment ready for planting a new crop of maize that will be irrigated by the new center pivot irrigation systems.





The 'Big" Tractor for Tillage



Used tractors for sale in town



Assembling a new four row planter from Brazil



Repairing the hydraulics on an old MF165 Tractor

A Trip To The Farm

 

Kukobila Nasia Farms (KNF)

 

The Kukobila Nasia Farms (KNF) was established in 2003 and produces mangoes primarily. The farm has a total land size of 210 acres, with about 70 acres of mangoes, five acres of butternut squash and about two acres of other vegetables. Vegetables, livestock and maize production are their main activities. The farm usually focus on maize production during the dry season. The farm is located 72 kilometres to the left on the Tamale-Bolgatanga highway at Kukobila and its source of water stems from the White Volta at Nasia. Vegetables are produced in both the lowland and upland areas at Kukobila Nasia Farms; crops grown include okra, papaya and chillies. Due to the economic viability of the berries in Northern Ghana, the farm is considering strawberry production in the future.

Mallam Seidu, the owner of KNF held a discussion with the Chief Executive Officer of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), a government initiative to develop the savannah ecological zone of Ghana through agriculture, and it became clear that the region has a comparative advantage in the production of butternut squash. Butternut squash belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family (commonly referred to as the Cucumber or Gourd family).

KNF with the assistance of the ministry of food and agriculture and the Ghana Commercial Agriculture Project (GCAP), a project sponsored by the World Bank and USAID to commercialize Ghana’s agriculture, has been granted a centre pivot system worth US$150,000. This is to cultivate 100 acres of land and demonstrate butternut production to farmers in the northern region. The grant also aims to enhance and diversify livelihoods of low income households and reduce poverty in northern Ghana. The 100 acre land is currently under preparation and installation of the equipment will commence as soon as land preparation is completed, most probably in October. Although the first season of butternut squash production under this system is scheduled to commence in October 2014, KNF lacks the technical expertise on how to operate and manage the system. KNF is therefore seeking the technical assistance of an ACDI/VOCA Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) volunteer to train their staff on how to operate and manage this all-new technology.

 

 

 



Pumping Plant on White Volta River

 

The pumping plant will supply water to the center pivots via 1.7 kilometers of 140 and 200mm PVC pipe. The pumping plant is on floats so that it can rise and fall with the level of the river. 

 

Everyone was curious about our visit




Pump Control House

The pump control house is located on elevated structure to keep it above the level of the river which can rise as much as 12 meters (36 feet) during the rainy season

 



Chinese Combine Harvester

One of the handicaps of farming in Africa is that spare parts and service for foreign manufactured equipment is scarce or non-existent.

Arrival in Ghana

Arrived safety Sunday evening in Acura, Ghana after two days of flying. Left Fresno Saturday morning and flew to Ghana via Salt Lake City and Amsterdam. Today is the third day of the trip and today we will fly to Tamale in northern Ghana and from there drive to Kukobia to meet our hosts.
The weather here is pleasant with light rain shows. Ghana is just a few degrees north of the equator, so it never does really get cold here.

GHANA -a new assigmnet

I have accepted a new assignment with ACDI_VOCA and will be departing July 18, 2015 for Kukobila Nasia Farms  located in Kukobila , Ghana ,West Africa to assist with the Training on Operation and Use of Center Pivot Irrigation Systems.

I'm excited about this new trip. It's been awhile since I have traveled. I will be posting photos and narration as time and access to the internet permit. Please check back soon and often.

Thanks, and as always, your comments are welcome.

My last Day In Georgia

I finished my meeting with CNFA to submit my trip reports and recommendations to my hosts. I returned to my hotel and decided to spend my last evening in Georgia hiking to the top of the mountain to view the old fort and the statue of Mother Georgia.

View of Fort from the city

Church in center of town

Passage way to the fort

Interior view of the fort

View of the City from the Fort

Statue of Mother Georgia

A Day of Pictures

It's Monday and had wonderful weekend traveling about the city and country side to get some photos.

The Restaurant District

River through the center of the city

Construction of a new tram system

Georgian President's Home

City view from the top of my hotel

Church built in 500 AD

The old capital city

My interpreter and guide Girogi

City Park with Sulfur Bathes in Background

Warm Sulfur Water Bath Houses

City Street

Mother Georgia. If you come as a friend, she will greet you with wine. If you come as an enemy, she will greet you with a sword.

Old Mid-evil fortress above the city. It was used as a prison during the Soviet Occupation. Now it is a tourist attraction.

A TRIP TO THE WINE DISTRICT

 Today was wonderful day. We were  able to get out of the office and make a trip to the country side to see my client's facilities. We traveled to the famous Georgian wine district. Similar to the Napa Valley of California. My client has established a tourist type operation complete with a restaurant, bakery, creamery, and winery. With the addition of the new cold storage unit, they will also sell apples, persimmons, grapes, and pomegranates  Cold storage is new enterprise here. There really is no commercial cold storage facilitates in Georgia. I have been invited here to help them get their coolers started and advise them on proper cold storage operation.

The day was short on work and long on enjoyment. I had a tour and was able to get  the photos below

New Cold Storage

Winery

The clay pots you see are the traditional way of storing wine. They would bury the clay pots in the cool earth a fill them with wine.

Best Georgian Wine 2008

Wine Tasting Room

Smoking Den With Water Pipe

Fire Place

Moonshine Still

Moonshine is legal in Georgia. There is also a butter churn and flour mill in the background.  The restaurant is filled with antiques.

Wine Grapes

Soviet Era Tractor

A Fine Meal

After the tour and a brief working session on the cold storage plan, we sat down to a beautiful lunch complete with local wine and moonshine.