The Taraba state Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. David Ishaya Kassa, on Sunday enjoined rice farmers in the state to use paro 44 rice variety seed to fight the fungal disease that is currently destroying dry season farm.
Kassa, who stated this in Jalingo while speaking to Blueprint said paro 66 and paro 62 rice variety seed that farmers are using on their farms cannot fight the fungal disesse effectively.
He noted that rice farmers from Karim-Lamido and Lau Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state recently cried out over the out break of the strange fungal disease presently destroying their rice farms.
“When we were told about the out break of the strange fungal disease destroying rice farms in Karim-Lamido and Lau, we quickly sent experts from the ministry of agriculture to visit the farmers and advised them appropriately, ” he said.
Blueprint reports that dry season rice farmers few days ago raised an alarm over the distruction of their rice farms by strange fungal disease.
The Taraba state chairman of rice farmers association,Tanko Bobbo Andame who spoke during an interview with journalists expressed worry that the strange fungal disease has destroyed several rice farms in the state..
He added that a farm that is infected with fungal disease would hardly yield one third of what it use to produce.
According to him, a farm which produced between 300 to 400 bags of paddy would hardly produce 50 bags as a result of the strange fungal disesse.
He maintained that farmers have sprayed their rice farms with all the available fungal and pesticides without any results and the destruction on rice crops persisted.
He lamented that this year’s dry season rice farmers would not witness bumper harvest in the state because majority of their farms were destroyed by the strange disesse.
