The Agriculture Technical School in Jalalabad trains boys from throughout the Province in both general high school courses and agricultural studies. They have very few useful textbooks on agriculture though, since the few books they do have are in English – which few students can read.
Juan and I visited the school on Tuesday to get an idea of what level of education the students had, what type of training they’d like and, in general, how we could best help them. We brought with us a very simple soil test for them to try that didn’t require any specialized equipment – just an empty water bottle (ubiquitous in Afghanistan) and some water.
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One of the Ag instructors showing rose bush transplants |
We got to the school and were immediately taken to the GCE class where we were given two seats in front of a group of 30 students. The kids had no idea who we were or why we were there, but they looked on politely – I guess it’s not every day that a couple foreigners crash your class. The GCE students speak English so w chatted for a bit about what they are currently studying and what they’d like to learn more about. One big issue that was brought up several times was the fact that they have lab but it’s currently not functional.
Finally, we showed them the soil composition test. It’s a simple test I had found online which tells you’re the percentages of sand, clay and silt in the soil. You basically dig a small hole at least four inches deep and scoop out about a cup of soil. You put the soil in a clear jar (or plastic bottle) and add about twice as much water. Then you shake the bottle until it’s thoroughly mixed – and you’re done! You let the concoction sit overnight and the minerals in the soil will settle based on weight. All the sand will settle to the bottom, then the silt and then the clay. You can then measure the percentages of each and use a soil texture triangle to identify the soil type. Easy! And, with this knowledge, you can determine what soil amendments to add, what will grow best, etc. (Although a NPK test is pretty crucial as well.)
I described the process and then one of the students repeated it in Pashto to make sure everyone fully understand. The kids seemed into it and promised to try it out that night. Juan will be returning soon and can finish the experiment with them using the soil texture triangle.
Their instructor posted some photos and started a discussion about our visit
here, on their Ning site.
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Beautiful veggies and fruit abound in Jalalabad but
many of them are from Pakistan |
1 comment:
Simple test!
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