In order to tackle the menace of the blight disease ravaging Irish potato farms in Plateau State, about 4,000 farmers from Mangu and Bokkos local government areas have received disease-resistant potato seedlings for the 2024 planting season.
The seedlings were presented to the farmers in Jos by Solidaridad, a civil society organisation, supported by the Kingdom of The Netherlands, to signal the flag off of the distribution to smallholder farmers in the two LGAs.
Recall that last year, Solidaridad supported farmers with improved seedling varieties of potato which they cultivated in demonstration farms established in their communities. The community facilitators were selected last year before the demonstration farms were established. They were also trained on good agricultural practices after which the trained facilitators further stepped down the training to the farmers in their communities and neighbouring ones using the demonstration farms as practical learning sites.
The distributed seedlings are products of the demonstration farms, and with that, the farmers can have the best varieties for planting and will continue to be supported by the community facilitators.
Speaking at the event, the organisation’s Programme Manager, Kene Onukwube, said what prompted them to assist the farmers with the seedlings was the numerous challenges being faced by the smallholder farmers compared to the commercial producers who could afford most of the things they needed.
He said the smallholder farmers needed access to inputs and support to be able to overcome several vulnerabilities which included climate change, access to finance, among others.
Onukwube noted that the seedlings had been tested and trusted, and that with the support and collaboration of the Plateau State Government, they would together provide opportunities to the farmers to learn good agricultural practices in order to tackle food insecurity.
Onukwube said the seedlings were not only disease-resistant, but also that there were early maturing varieties, adding that they were not only going to be focusing on Mangu and Bokkos LGAs, but would include other pertinent local government areas in the project.
In her remarks, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Esther Pwaspo, said the programme would enable the farmers not only to have food to eat, but also to have more to export for commercial/business purposes.
Ms Pwaspo, who represented Governor Caleb Mutfwang, said the farmers should follow the standard procedures of using the seedlings and not do things on their own so that they could get the required results from their yields.
The farmers promised to make judicious use of the seedlings in order to boost the crop’s cultivation and ensure food security in the state and the nation by extension.
