Thanksgiving and More Planting by Cory

 Since we are in the southern hemisphere, it was like the last week of May here for Thanksgiving week.

The 2nd half of November was busy  planting corn and close to 50 acres was planted.

Some risk exists planting this early in that the rains could be sparse. 

The yield potential is higher this way and less risk if rains end early. 

It is already December and last year rains ended Jan. 20, causing almost all the crops to fail. 

We enjoyed 2 inches of rain right after Thanksgiving so the corn should all germinate now and be off to a good start.

There is plenty of hand labor available.

This income is very welcome during a year when many do not have money to buy enough food.

Rented oxen teams do the heavier work of making the planting trenches and most of the seed covering.

Next week we plan to prepare some fields for soybeans and sunflower.

Many thanks to Patrick and the church district overseer for organizing the day labor.

There is also a man and his dog chasing quail or partridge-like birds at dawn and dusk as they like to pull up the young corn plants and eat the soft seed.

We enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving with the teachers, Patrick and Austin, a Bible student who also teaches Fritz Tonga, and his wife.

The night included a short devotional, a video explaining the history of Thanksgiving and each shared about something we are thankful for.

Rev. Samson's wife, who works at the Jembo Hospital reported that a recent survey of 1,400 children in this area only found 5 with malnutrition and only one of those was severe.

This was much lower than anticipated due to the drought.

The area north of Livingstone had a slightly better harvest than this area but famine is worse there now.

We are thankful the Jembo Agriculture Project is now on the Global Partners Website:Jembo Agriculture Project to help with costs getting the farming established while resources are scarce.

The average small farmer in Zambia gets about 50 bushels per acre of corn but good seed has the potential to yield 200 or more bushels.

In many areas the soil is too acid, like the reddish-brown soil in this Jembo field (pH 4.5) but not many people apply lime to reduce the acidity.

Corn will also need a lot of nitrogen fertilizer mid-season.

Mixing fertilizers

We will soon be buying soybean seeds, which are expensive but soybean and sunflower don't require much fertilizer.