A huge group of us -- 44 farmers, District Extension Officer, 6 CPAR staff and 3 university students on field placement with CPAR -- had a really good time at the Nane Nane Agricultural Fair. We looked at different varieties of jam, honey and cheese, and checked out juice, tea and wine made from the rosella plant. In addition to maize cakes and biscuits, we tasted delicious 'lablab' cake. Lablab is the legume that CPAR promotes among our Karatu farmers both as a cover crop to protect and enrich the soil, and as a nutritious protein for household consumption. We saw a huge 32 kg pumpkin, a 7 foot long stalk of bananas, decorative clothing made from goat hide, and really cool furniture made out of rice husks mixed with soil. The farmers enjoyed visiting demonstration plots of vegetables, maize, sunflower, banana and fodder. They had the opportunity to meet other farmer field school members both from Karatu and other districts, and exchange ideas and experiences about livestock keeping and crop techniques. They were really impressed by the pig and dairy goat husbandry demonstrations. They shared information from their own dairy goat activities, and were keen to learn more about pigs since they are in the process of starting piggeries.
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