The Builsa North District Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Mr. Ibrahim Sumara Alidu, has advised farmers in the District to proactively spray their farms against the Fall Armyworm infestation and not wait for the crops to be invaded by the worms.
According to him, a swift move to spray their farms against the Fall Armyworm before any invasion will not only protect their crops against destruction but also safeguard farmers’ investments.
Speaking to A1 NEWS at Sandema in the Builsa North District of the Upper East Region, Mr. Alidu, implored farmers not to rely solely on government’s Fall Armyworm chemicals supplies, but also acquire their own chemicals from the open market to complement government’s efforts.
“We are advising the farmers, they shouldn’t wait to see the Fall Armyworm before they spray. When you plant, contact our Agric Extension Officers, get the Fall Armyworm chemicals and spray every three weeks”.
Don’t fold your arms and say the chemicals that I received from the Department of Agric is finished therefore I cannot do anything”.
Mr. Alidu, said, it was imperative on farmers to try their best not to allow their investments go waste through pests and other crop diseases that are preventable.
Mr. Alidu said admonished farmers in the area to adopt the communal spraying gang approach as a proactive response to the fight against Fall Armyworm.
“In most operational areas that is what we have been using and that is the approach we want to still use”.
“If one farmer sprays his farm and the adjoining farms are not sprayed, it will not yield any results, it will be a useless exercise. There is the need to spray all farms within that area to ensure that the worms within those areas are killed”.
He called on community members to form spraying groups so that the Department would support them with the needed logistics and training on how to effectively apply the chemicals across farms within their communities.
“We have some farmers who do not want to go by the spray gang approach, when such farmers come, we still serve them and monitor to be sure that they spray.”
Source:|A1radioonline.com|101.1MHZ|Frederick Yinbil|Ghana
