{"id":52209,"date":"2023-12-29T06:40:11","date_gmt":"2023-12-29T05:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/?p=52209"},"modified":"2023-12-29T10:53:17","modified_gmt":"2023-12-29T09:53:17","slug":"irrigation-farmers-lose-the-battle-against-unknown-pest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/irrigation-farmers-lose-the-battle-against-unknown-pest\/","title":{"rendered":"Irrigation farmers lose the battle against \u2018unknown\u2019 pest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Agriculture expert tells irrigation farmers that there is nothing they can do about this year\u2019s plants except watch them wilt and die from killer nematode worms.<\/strong><\/p>\n

An \u201cunknown\u201d pest \u2013 particularly partial to tomatoes \u2013 has invaded the lands of irrigation farmers, killing and destroying any fruit they come across and costing the owners a fortune in pesticides that don\u2019t work and plants that end up dying before they can produce any fruit.<\/p>\n

The \u201cenemy\u201d is a worm that is attacking mainly tomato plants grown in the Fariya community in the Jere Local Government Area of Borno State. <\/p>\n

Many farmers have spent a fortune on pesticides to try to control and destroy the deadly pest \u2013 but all in vain.
\nIrrigation farmer Bulama Modu Shokari told RNI that this was the first time they had encountered the deadly pest.
\n\u201cThe unknown pest stops plants from yielding fruit and eventually it destroys the plants, leaving the farmer without a crop. Farmers are losing everything. We have been looking for chemicals and pesticides that will get rid of this destructive and nasty pest but we can\u2019t find anything that stops them. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, because we have never come across this before, we did not get an agricultural expert to come in time to investigate and teach us how to deal with this pest. Now, our farmlands have been destroyed by the pest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musa Mustapha said he had planted tomatoes about seven months ago.
\n\u201cThey have not produced any yield or fruit because of this unknown pest. It starts at the upper leaves of the plant and works its way down to the roots. It makes holes in the fruit and the leaves before it destroys them completely.
\n\u201cI spent almost \u20a640,000 buying different chemicals and pesticides but all in vain. We have never seen such a dangerous pest that destroys plants completely and can\u2019t be controlled by chemicals or pesticides. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why we have described it as the \u2018unknown\u2019 pest. We have had similar pests in the past but we have never come across such a deadly and dangerous pest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Malam Isa Bukar Kumshe, an agricultural expert and a senior lecturer at the Mohammet Lawan College of Agriculture in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, said the pest that destroys tomato plants had been identified as a nematode or roundworm. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe plant-parasitic nematodes damage the host plant by causing wounds on the plant roots and some microbial diseases, forming brown spots on the root and swelling or rotting of the tubers on the above-ground parts of the plant.
\n\u201cIn agricultural areas, nematicides are often used to prevent the damage of these nematodes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kumshe said that you could recognise the presence of these worms by yellowing, stunting and wilting of the plant, accompanied by a decline in yield.
\nThe best method of controlling nematodes was to treat the seeds with chemicals before planting because treated seeds were coated with a pesticide that limited crop damage from fungus and insects. <\/p>\n

Also nematodes could be managed through worm force insecticides. <\/p>\n

He advised irrigation farmers who were battling the nematodes \u2013 the \u201cunknown pests\u201d \u2013 to always spray local fertilisers, such as the faeces of livestock like cows, goats, sheep or even chickens, on their farmlands with water for at least three weeks. Once the soil had absorbed the fertiliser, the farmland would be ready for planting.<\/p>\n

But, he said, this advice would be useful for irrigation farmers when they were getting their lands ready for irrigation next year.<\/p>\n

He said it was too late now and there was not anything they could do with this year\u2019s yield. They would just have to sit back and watch their plants being destroyed by the nematodes.
\n\u201cAn expensive and unfulfilling lesson,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

SHETTIMA LAWAN MONGUNO<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Agriculture expert tells irrigation farmers that there is nothing they can do about this year\u2019s plants except watch them wilt and die from killer nematode worms. An \u201cunknown\u201d pest \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":52210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-farming-and-livestock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52211,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52209\/revisions\/52211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}