The Upper East Regional Director of Agriculture, Alhaji Zachariah Fuseini, has expressed worry over the poor rain-fall pattern in the region. Ahljai Fuseini explained that this has given rise to fall armyworms and contributed to poor crop growth.
He said the absence of rain in the region was creating a conducive atmosphere for armyworm infestation in the districts it had invaded, but there was no cause to worry as officers were on the ground to offer the needed assistance to farmers to battle the pest.
According to him, heavy rain would have flooded the armyworms from the leaves of crops and made it highly impossible for them to lay eggs and hatch, but in the absence of rain, coupled with the devastation of fall armyworms, it was having an adverse effect on crops.
He revealed this when he spoke to Gerard A. Asagi on A1 Radio’s Daybreak Upper show regarding the role of stakeholders in strengthening the agricultural Sector in the Region.
Mr Fuseini stated that “farmers are completely confused as to whether they are in a rainy season or not, and it is a very big surprise to myself because we are almost in the peak of the rainy season yet there are no rains here.”
He noted that unlike the Upper East Region, the rain has continuously fallen heavily in the Northern Region consecutively, and this was a big blow to peasant farmers in the Upper East Region.
The Director called on farmers to closely monitor their farms and report to their respective Agricultural extension officers for chemicals to be made available for them at no cost.
The President of the Miller Institute for Transdisciplinary and Development Studies, Professor David Millar, noted that the absence of rain in the Region could not be considered climate change but variability.
He explained that “when climate is really changing, it is widespread, but it does not isolate an island and avoid it and do the rest for the others, as in the case of the Upper East Region”.
He noted that climate change occurs over time, while variability may result from natural internal processes within the climate system.
Professor Millar said there was a need for the Planting for Food and Jobs and the One Village, One Dam policies to be reviewed within the context of variability and other isolated incidences to address real problems affecting farmers.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Gilbert Azeem Tiroog|Ghana
