INIDA: São Domingos

Nora, who works with INIDA's site at São Domingos, was able to give us a tour and talk with us about general agriculture activities. She first took us to the "Estufas" which are tent-like, net structures they use to block insects, wind and dirt from their engineered "pretty" cucumbers. The tent themselves weren't in the best condition, with lots of holes in the material, but the plants seemed to be doing quite well. They produce these engineered plants in order to sell the seeds to farmers and the workers also have several non-tent experiments with tomatoes, potatoes, squash and pepper. There are all types of fruit (banana, mango, papaya, pilmebi, picanga, strawberry, etc) and INIDA is testing other plants like macadamia nut and eggplant in hopes of introducing them. (On a somewhat unrelated note, because of all these varieties of food, they have a problem with people stealing their food, ruining their experiments' results - and sometimes have to place paper bags around, for example, their mangos to deter theft.)

I noticed one experiment that tests different levels of drip irrigation and think the data from that would benefit the INIDA paper. However, she did note that they are no official irrigation technicians and the one person who works with their system may be out of practice. Nora also gave us the names of the two commercial sellers of irrigation systems: Agroproducto (in Sao Fillipe) and Agrocentro (in Fazenda). Regardless, INIDA does do outreach and demonstration plots: for example, they help the farmers measure the correct amount of water for their crops so they don't flood them.

Nora also helped us improve our agro-vocabulary, by pointing out issues with soil bacteria and crop rotation as well as pesticide and fertilizer. Additionally, I learned there is a finance problem as farmers fail to budget out money to maintain their drip irrigation systems and once they break, they result back to traditional, open-pipe canals (which are mega inefficient).

After our tour, we regrouped with a plan for the week and decided to go visit at least one of the commercial sellers on our way to Praia: Agrocentro. The staff were nice and tried to answer our questions as best as possible. We discovered that:

• A drip irrigation kit for 500 sqft costs 18500,00 CVE - and has enough tubing to be divided into 2 fields already. Additional tubing is extra
• T-tape tubing costs 24,000 CVE for 2500m; 8000 CVE for 1000m; and 5580 CVE for 500m.
• There is "incorporated watering" and drip holes can range from 20 to 33cm apart.
• They carry three brands: Pathfinder, T-Tape, and Tubo Pe 16 el gota jeador(?)

It is also important to note that small farms will have different purchases from large farms. I sent a follow-up email to ask for data on sales but have yet to get any reply.