Where There Is No Doctor 2011
TRYING A NEW IDEA
Not all the suggestions on the last pages are
likely to work in your area. Perhaps some will
work if changed for your particular situation and
resources at hand. Often you can only know
whether something will work or not by trying it.
That is, by experiment.
When you try out a new idea, always start
small. If you start small and the experiment fails,
or something has to be done differently, you will
not lose much. If it works, people will see that it
works and can begin to apply it in a bigger way.
Start small
Do not be discouraged if an experiment does not work. Perhaps you can try
again with certain changes. You can learn as much from your failures as your
successes. But start small.
Here is an example of experimenting with a new idea.
You learn that a certain kind of bean, such as soya, is an excellent body‑building
food. But will it grow in your area? And if it grows, will people eat it?
Start by planting a small patch—or 2 or 3 small patches in different conditions of soil
or water. If the beans do well, try preparing them in different ways, and see if people
will eat them. If so, try planting more beans in the conditions where you found they grew
best. But try out still other conditions in more small patches to see if you can get an
even better crop.
There may be several conditions you want to try changing. For example, type
of soil, addition of fertilizer, amount of water, or different varieties of seed. To best
understand what helps and what does not, be sure to change only one condition
at a time and keep all the rest the same.
For example, to find out if animal fertilizer (manure) helps the beans grow, and how
much to use, plant several small bean patches side by side, under the same conditions
of water and sunlight, and using the same seed. But before you plant, mix each patch
with a different amount of manure, something like this:
This experiment shows that a certain amount of manure helps, but that too
much can harm the plants. This is only an example. Your experiments may give
different results. Try for yourself!
w15