Expert Charges Farmers On Best Practices

Following the current de
struction of maize farms in some parts of the South-South and South-East geo-political regions of the country, an Agricultural  Engineer, Mr. Adaotu Muzan has called on rural farmers to avail themselves of the services of state Ministry of Agriculture.
Muzan, who stated this in a telephone interview with The Tide recently, said the rural farmers faced many challenges, because the Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) was no longer functional.
According to him, the development has deprived the farmers the needed expertise of extension services.
He said when the ADPs  were established and functional, the extension officers visited  the farmers at  the grassroot.
Muzan further called on the state government to revamp the ADPs to enable the rural  farmers avail themselves of their services.
On the challenges facing maize farmers, he said experience  showed that those who planted their maize  early  did not  experience the scourge.
He advised that planting should commence between  March and April even as he called on the various research institutes in the country to tackle the menace.
The expert also advised  the farmers to go for improved varieties of  seeds from the appropriate government agencies to enable  them come up with healthy and good harvest.
It could be recalled that the Moore plantation,  Ibadan,  recently raised the alarm  that large maize farms especially in the South West part of the country were being ravaged by a strange disease.
Also, The Tide recalls that a similar occurrence was reported in Abua/Odual, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni, Etche, Ahoada East and West Local government areas of the state amongst  others.