how saplings respond to water

Even while Oqui Kator is being prepared for a large-scale irrigation system composed of 1,750 feet of pipe, a 25 foot well, and a gas-powered water pump, La Rose Cocoa Farms is still getting water to the eight acres of cocoa seedlings in Guaman-Odumase. We are accomplishing this by hand-fetching barrels of water and using watering cans and knapsacks to deliver about 1 liter of water to each seedling (all 3,500) every 4 days.

Here is some evidence of the positive impacts that the watering is having on the cocoa seedlings:

Image 1: A cocoa seedling that has generated new growth since watering started two weeks ago (yet almost two months into the dry season).

Image 2: This doesn't look like much, but it is a veritable Lazarus in the scheme of the cocoa farm. This was just a dry twig in the ground two weeks ago, but is now spurting new growth from the base.


P.S: I realize that I haven't done community profiles yet, and that many of the activities described here would be more meaningful with an idea of the communities in which they took place. I'll work on those early next week.

irrigation: ready, set, wait...

The irrigation project at Oqui Kator is nearing the green light stage, much to the pleasure of the 3,600+ plantains that are thirsty in the dry, fiery harmattan (dry) season. I am currently managing a well-digging crew, a plumbing crew, and my own farm laborers. It has become something of a fiasco, with me running up and down the hill tripping over roots and sweating in the West African heat. I think these pictures summarize the scale of the project:

"the crazy white man who waters his cocoa in the dry season"

That's how I was introduced to someone today, as "the crazy white man who waters his cocoa in the dry season."

"And my plantains," I added. "And well, I'm not really crazy. Well, not as a result of using irrigation in a rainforest, anyway."

And then today, after weeks of almost returning to church to petition God with prayer, one of my wells finally hit water. It was quite impressive. We had dug for about 15 feet and then suddenly water came rushing in and filled the well to the surface. Then we bailed the water, dug another 10 feet, and then let it fill up.

Well, as one might guess, digging a 20 foot hole that continually fills up with water is quite difficult. But what will be even more difficult is pumping water from said well at a 45 degree angle uphill where it will connect with a t-shaped irrigation system with 12 taps at strategic points. These 12 points will service a 54 yard hose that will in turn supply water to 3,262 plantain trees and 3,262 cocoa seedlings (alternating every five feet). I thought this sounded like a tedious plan, and I was right. But luckily, I found people willing to help me do it. What I didn't imagine was the extraordinary cost of doing it - 1,300 cedis for the PCV pipes, joiners ("t's"), taps, and hoses, and 600 cedis for a 3 inch superpowered water pump. But when those 6,500+ trees start pumping giant heads of plantain and metric tons of cocoa it will be all worth it.

So that is success on one front. Getting all these materials to the middle of the rainforest was another task altogether, so here are some pictures of the poor guy who agreed to do the job (for 120 cedis, mind you):

The other plots of land are still waiting for water (and this one too, until the irrigation system is set up), but we are making progress on those wells too. In the meantime, I have less than two weeks to bring in a plumber, help him and learn from him, and then get my workers trained on how to water the trees before I visit the U.S.