Maize Farmers in Bauchi State had been recording 100 percent yield per hectare in the past three years as a result of adopting striga weed control techniques introduced in 2011, Programme Manager of Bauchi State Agricultural Development Programme (BSADP), Dr Iliyasu Gital has disclosed.
Aaccording to him, the techniques had helped control damage done to crops by triga weed, a specie of parasitic plant that suffocates and destroys crops. He said the techniques, namely crop rotation, mixed cropping and the application of viral powder, were copied from Kenya, and had proved to be very effective.
Gital explained to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bauchi yesterday that before the introduction of the techniques, 25 Agriculture Extension Agents were trained, after which each of them selected 20 farmers within his areas of jurisdictions for trial.
“Twenty farmlands were selected, who established demonstration farms. Each farmer adopted one of the newly introduced techniques of triga control on their maize, sorghum and cowpea farms.
“Where farmers used to get 50 per cent yield, they got 100 percent of their potential yield, while where some earlier recorded zero yield due to damage by striga, they got 50 percent and subsequent years, recorded 100 per cent.”
According to him, the success of the techniques is being reviewed constantly and where problems are detected, experts are invited to conduct research.
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