The Food and Agriculture Organisation ( FAO) has raised an alarm and serious warning over impending danger of food shortage in the country.
The organisation, in a statement issued Tuesday in Abuja attributed the likely famine to army worm pest invasion on maize and other crops.
According to the FAO National Communications Officer, David Karl, the pest crop destruction has extended to other crops such as millet, sorghum, cowpea, vegetables, thus could pose threat to the Federal Government food sufficiency drive.
However, he noted that FAO in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) organised 3-day training for over 100 farmers in the country in order to curtail and manage the noxious pest and its effect on crops.
He said the training was carried out in Kaduna state with participants drawn from other parts of the region while similar training was held for farmers in the North central (Abuja) and southwest (Akure) regions among others.
It reads in part: “As the rainy season dawn in all parts of the country, planting of maize has begun in earnest, especially in the Northern part of the country where majority of the produce is cultivated. However, the presence of the invasive trans-boundary pest the Fall Army-worm (FAW) noticed for the first time in Nigeria in 2016 continues to be a great threat to the nation’s food security.
“The looming danger of the possibility of the pest extending its host range to other important crops such as millet, sorghum, cowpea, vegetables is very high and therefore calls for urgent attention.”
According to the statement, the training of trainers programme was put together such that the trained farmers are expected to further take down the training to farmers in their respective communities.
“As part of the immediate intervention to prevent farmers from sustaining drastic yield losses during this 2018 cropping season, and to restore productive capacity, FAO has provided to farmers, early maturing maize seed variety, herbicides, fertilizer, PPE materials, knapsack sprayer and Goldmax Total Crop Solution
“Furthermore, as part of FAO’s effort, 120 extension workers and 50 researchers from the project target states (Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, Kwara, Abia, Borno, Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa and FCT) were trained on FAW biology, identification, damage symptoms, integrated pest management techniques, which includes, cultural practices, biological and chemical control, other topics covered include pesticide and pesticide risk reduction. Good Agricultural Practice (GAP).”
The FAO Country Representative Suffyan Koroma described the inputs given to the farmers as short term measures to enable them meet up with the 2018 planting season.
“FAO has also initiated the process of establishing a National Task Force to advice Government of Nigeria on FAW infestation. Engage partners, communicate with relevant stakeholders on the menace of the pest and promote cooperation, coordination, consistency and synergies across the country on its infestation and intervention. Membership of the Task Force will include amongst others, Research Institutions, private sector, relevant MDAs, NGOs, and Development Partners etc.”
Koroma restated FAO’s commitment not to relent in the fight against army worm to achieve the aim of achieving zero hunger and improving the livelihood of local farmers. - The Nation
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