The Menji Agricultural Senior School Demonstration Farm

Another one of my numerous (and per usual a tad ambitious) goals has been realized! Here at Menji, we have officially established a demonstration farm! This demonstration farm will allow the students to gain a deeper and more meaningful understanding of the concepts previously taught to them on a chalkboard. The funds for this project were 75% from a PCPP (Peace Corps Partnership Program) Grant and 25% from the school itself.

Our first move in establishing the school farm was a time-sensitive one. Bees.

The school possesses several acres of highly productive cashew trees, which provide the school with extra revenue to buy new desks, text books, etc.. To make these trees yet more productive by increasing the rate of pollination and (certainly more importantly) to also teach the students bee keeping and boney production, we choose to introduce apiculture to the agriculture program. Now why, you might be wondering, were simple little honey bees a time-sensitive matter? Well, the answer to your quandaries is a very interesting one indeed! The dry season (November - March) is when the cashews along with several other species decide to flower and fruit. This is phenomenon is rather curious to me as a student of biology, because at the time when the cashew trees are producing hundreds of pounds of succulent little juice bombs (the cashew fruits - see picture below), the environment has been dry and arid for months, almost like a desert. By the time the cashew trees start flowering and fruiting, the topsoil is more like dusty concrete than anything else. I surmise the trees fruit at this time, because the dry months are also the windy months... And well wind happens to be a great pollinator. ANYWAY enough of my biological musings.

The bee project was time sensitive, because in addition to being the cashew tree flowering season, the dry season is also the bees' swarming season. What this means is that entire populations of bees (including their queens) will swarm in massive clouds across the environment in search of a new home. Swarming season is the perfect time to put out bee hives for these nomadic arthropods. It would be like a group of hobos and bag ladies stumbling upon a brand new apartment people with the sign, "COME ON IN, FREE RENT," plastered across the front.

To make a long story short, we found a professional bee keeper and bee hive builder, Mr Twi Brempong. Mr. Brembong made four lovely beehives, brought them to the school, and did a lecture/ demonstration for the agriculture students. The happy end to this tale: last week I went out check on the hives... And they have been colonized!! Now the hives are quite literally buzzing with life.

Here the students are "baiting" the beehives by rubbing a mixture of wax and honey all over the inside of the hive... which attracts the bees!!

The next segment in this tale of agriculture development is bunnies. I bet you didn't know that cousins of the mythological candy-bearing, egg-hiding Easter creature are reared commercially here in Ghana to be bought and roasted to a perfect golden brown for dinner.

I cannot deny it, regardless of their fuzzy-wuzzly cuteness... Dang, rabbit meat is taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaastey!

Anyway, we found yet another carpenter - this one specializing in rabbit hutch construction - and a knowledgeable rabbit rearer, Nana Kosa. Nana Kosa is a teacher by profession, but keeps scores of rabbits in his backyard as an additional source of income. And has done so for many years. Again, to cut out the unnecessary details, Nana Kosa came to the school with four lovely, young female bunnies and a beautifully-crafted brand new rabbit hutch in tow. He spent several hours with the students discussing everything from their feeding habits, to how to determine the sex of a rabbit, to their most common diseases and ailments, to their reproductive cycle.

The students came out of these sessions, with not only more information and increased knowledge, but also with a much higher level of excitement and motivation to learn! They studied firsthand two important and interesting income-producing activities that could eventually lead to a career in agriculture. And they are totally aware of that fact; I have had several students come to me to say, "Miss Betsy, I find the rabbits very interesting. They are simple to keep and I could sell them for a lot of money!" Or, "I before was afraid of bees, but now that I know I can sell a liter of honey for 15.00cedi, I love bees!" The school is also very much excitement about the rabbit-rearing. The head of the agriculture department reported to me last week, that the school plans to invest in four more hutches and twenty more rabbits! Wow, yay for Peace Corps!