AppLab TweetsEdward Chelangat is Grameen Foundation’s Community Knowledge Worker (CKW) field officer in Kapchorwa, Uganda
John Mamosogo is a farmer from Tangwen parish, Kabeywa subcounty, Rumasaki village, who farms coffee as a business. His CKW is Tabitha Solimo whom he refers to as madam in the story. When I visited him, on August 8, 2011 he told me the following about CKW work and coffee farming:
“I had a friend called Ben who knows madam [CKW Tabitha Solimo], when we were walking together, he told me he was going to check something in the internet. I asked him where is the internet? He told me there is a madam who has internet and gives information on coffee. I accompanied him to the madam, madam scrolled for us everything and I centered on coffee mainly. I was interested in coffee because I had some problems in my coffee farm, so with the help of madam, we went through coffee management and under that we went to diseases. I gave my symptoms and madam compared with what was being described in the internet. I told her my coffee is “sooty black”, some leaves look yellowish and rusty and the flowering coffee drops. In another stage you find the immature berries as if hot water was poured on the berries and when you shake the coffee, they drop massively and those which are near maturity, they dry there and become “mbuni”, for us people were saying it is due to coldness, when I compared with the information with madam, I said this must be a disease not coldness.
The diseases which the phone told us were coffee berry disease; coffee leave rust and another one which I can’t remember the name. Madam advised me to spray with sypalanthy and copper, we also identified one which made white substance between my coffee berries, and it attracts ants to climb coffee, so I sprayed copper and sypalanthy, my coffee has improved so much. I have not registered leaves dropping again, even the berries are no longer dropping, those ants no longer make journeys up my trees. The copper which I applied speeds maturity of my coffee, my wife has already started picking coffee”
John’s message to Grameen Foundation:
“The knowledge we are getting is very good, give Madam a motorcycle so that she can reach all the farmers in three parishes, if she can reach every farmer, it will help farmers so much”
Joseph Solimo is a farmer of coffee, beans, bananas, and pigs from Gamatu village, Gamatui parish, Sipi sub county, Kapchorwa District, when I asked him about his experience with CKW services, he had this to say:
“Last year in September, my pig gave birth to 15 piglets but the piglets died and I remained with 2 only, I consulted Tabitha who checked on the phone, it was found out that the pig lacked iron when it was pregnant. The phone also told us to apply iron tablets or charcoal 2 to 3 times in a month when it is pregnant. The phone also told us that the pig should eat dry soil when it is pregnant. When the pig got pregnant again, I used the methods of applying charcoal and tablets of iron and the dry soil. This was October 2010.
“I gave the pig charcoal 3 times in the month and iron tablets once, I continuously fed the pig with dry soil by grazing it where there is dry soil, the next delivery was very successful, my pig gave me 12 piglets and none died.”
