The Federal Government has trained 200 maize farmers in Kogi State on the use of herbicide to control weed and pests in their farms for better yield. The Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, said this during the training in Lokoja that the participants would be given a knap sprayer each at absolutely no cost after the training, so that they can better control pests and weeds on their farms. Akinwumi, said the ministry would also distribute 5,000 maize storage bags to farmers across the 21 local government areas of the state to store their produce and prevent them from being destroyed by pests. He said the government has discovered that pests, diseases and storage are the major problems facing farmers in the country, saying that with the distribution of sprayer and storage bags, they will be able to overcome the problems and have their products stored for a long time. Earlier, the consultant to the maize value chain of the Agricultural transformation agenda of the Federal Government, Dr. Joseph Moroti Fajemnin, said the training was to empower youth farmers to produce maize in a modern way without much hazards and manpower. While also commending the Agricultural transformation initiatives of Governor Idris Wada, he added that weed control is a major aspect of maize production and that they were trying to move away from the traditional hoe weeding method to the use of herbicide.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 05:45:13 +0000
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