Taraba farmers ready for wet season, but…

Farmers in Taraba State are in early preparation for this year’s wet farming. This followed the arrival of rainfall in some parts of the state and signs of possible rainfall in other places.

Findings revealed that many towns in southern and central zones of the state have recorded heavy rains.

Although farmers did not start planting, many have started clearing their farms in preparation for the coming farming activities.

Ali Maihula, a farmer in Bali Local Government Area of the state, said heavy rains were recorded this month and farmers had started preparation.

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He said he and other farmers in the area had started evacuating manure to their lands.

Maihula explained that local manure worked very well on all crops, and that is why farmers are evacuating manure to their farms now more than before.

“We now apply both chemical fertiliser and local manure on our crops, and we are getting good yield. That is why we no longer apply chemical fertiliser without mixing it with local manure,” he said.

He complained over the increasing cost of tractor hiring and fertiliser, as well as weed chemical and pesticide.

He said that with the high price of farm inputs, it would be very difficult to have produce at lower prices as the case was in previous years.

Maihula explained that most farmers were repairing their tractors in preparation for farming season, but the cost of spare parts is a major problem now.

He said the price of spare parts had doubled, which means that farmers would pay more to hire tractors to work in their farms.

Another farmer, Ibrahim Dauda, told Daily Trust on Sunday that the state and the federal government should provide subsidy for agriculture.

He said agriculture would not be transformed to address food security without government putting subsidy on agriculture as it is done in Europe and America.

Dauda said farming was very costly, in addition to the high risk involved due to kidnapping and banditry, adding that both the state and the federal government should commit more resources into agriculture to make it a more profitable venture.