Local farmers in West Kwara’ae, Malaita Province on Monday got the opportunity to learn a new and effective method of cultivating sweet potato that will encourage more yielding.
Over 30 local farmers attended a demonstration session conducted by the Taiwan Technical Mission (TTM) representative based in Malaita Samson Tsu at Bethel village in West Kwara’ae.
The new method is different from the traditional way of farming sweet potato, which requires more than one potato vine in a mount and planted on mounts with spacing in between the mounts.
The newly introduced method requires only one vine in a mount and is planted in rows and not mounts.
Mr. Tsu explained that in this TTM method no space will be wasted like the traditional method that requires spacing between the mounts.
He said the single vine is capable of producing more yields compared to the traditional method because there is not much competition for nutrients and with the rows; it is easy to apply fertilizer to the potato.
Local farmers who attended the demonstration session were also given TTM sweet potato production guide.
The TTM sweet potato production guide will help the local farmers know more about the sweet potato.
The session ended with a practical where Mr. Tsu took them to the farm and showed them how to prepare rows for sweet potato and how to plant sweet potato using a single vine.
Officers from the Agriculture office in Auki also witnessed the field demonstration at Bethel village early this week.
By BIRA’AU WILSON SAENI
In Auki
