Agriculture Extension Officers from across Vanuatu will participate in the first ever soil training organised by the Department of Agriculture next week.
Whilst the EOs are working with local farmers to promote the agriculture sector, it is also vital for the officers to gain knowledge on the different types of soils and its nutrients as mass production of crops rely heavily on soils.
“This training is important as the EO will be able to access basic important information that will assist them to know more about their soils as soils control the growth of crops so that they can help their farmers to produce good yield,” Acting Soil Agronomist, Junior Salong said.
“In soils, plants find anchorage to withstand strong winds. Soil influences agricultural production since different soil has different impacts on different crops growth and yield, therefore as Agriculturalists, it is important to know basic information on soils.”
The training will target different topics.
One area of the training will focus on sustainable farming practices and integrated farming.
“This is an important area as maintaining sustainable farming practices ensures high production at all times even though farmers use the same land for farming,” Salong said.
“If farmers do not apply sustainable farming practices at their farms, growing crops on the same area of land will result in a low production or yield.
“There are different types of farming practices some of which the EOs already know but they need to know some other management practices of these farming practices to ensure high production of crops at all times.”
There will also be group discussions on integrated farming and propose provincial integrated farms and field work. Another focus will be on agroforestry and the use of Earth Auger drill.
“Agroforestry is an integration of two farming practices where permanent trees are planted at a spacing that allows other small agricultural food crops to be planted in between,” Salong explained.
“This practice has displayed a lot of advantages such as the trees provide shade during hot weather, provide water catchment, act has wind break during cyclone seasons, trees can be used for timbers and the practice allows maximum utilisation of space, therefore it is important to educate the EO on this farming system so it can be promoted around Vanuatu.
Photo supplied Caption: Good quality soil produces good vanilla plants.