Over 60 farmers at the Zanlerig-Gane Community in the Nabdam District of the Upper East Region have been sensitised on measures to deploy in the fight against fall armyworms on their farms.
The farmers were taken through demonstrations of organic and inorganic methods they could employ to eliminate the fall armyworms and ways they could precisely assess pest pressure and crop performance, including the best disease control interventions.
The Nabdam District Plant Protection and Regulation Services Officer of the Department of Agriculture, Michael Yenguriba, speaking to the farmers in the community, noted that it was important farmers were skilled in how to spot early symptoms of fall armyworms and control them.
This, the Director revealed, would help them fight the pest at an early stage, destroy their eggs and larvae, and completely prevent the pest from escalating to other farms.
He reflected that some of the maize farms in the community that had serious cases were due to the failure of the farmers to detect early signs and fight the armyworms at the initial stage, which led to the escalation to other crops.
He assured them, however, that there was no cause for alarm, as the department of Agriculture was ready to assist farmers in getting over the menace by building their capacities and making available chemicals for them to help fight the armyworms.
The Agricultural extension officer in the area, Joseph Aboo, noted that, apart from the application of chemicals to fight the pest, farmers could also use other organic methods such as the use of pepper and water from boiled Nim tree leaves.
He emphasised that the organic method was much safer and more convenient due to its absence of complications, unlike the conventional method, which requires safety measures because of its adverse effect on the farmer.
The Directorate handed over chemicals to some of the farmers and assured the rest, who could not get the chemicals, of their return to the community to provide them same.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Gilbert Azeem Tiroog|Ghana
