Agric research institutes warn farmers against early planting

 

Prof. Prof. Ibrahim Abubakar & Prof James Adediran

With the recent rainfall in some parts of the country, the two major Agricultural Research Institutes in Nigeria, covering the North and South ecologies overall bosses have warned farmers against using the early down pours in February and March as yard stick to embark on planting, saying they should be patient till end of March when steady rainfall would have been available to sustain the survival of any crop from subsequent heat that may follow the early rainfalls.

Both the Executive Directors, Institute for Agricultural Research & Training (IAR&T) Moorplantation, Ibadan, Prof James Adediran and his counterpart in the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) Samaru, Zaria Prof. Prof. Ibrahim Abubakar have unanimously agreed on different conversation with Food Farm News that any farmer speculating on the present early rainfall across the nation to embark on planting would be doing such at his or her own risk adding the heat that would follow the rainfall in the few weeks may be very destructive and devastating to plants.

The ED, IAR&T, Prof. Adediran advised that farmers should be patient till March ending when any danger of plants being exposed to intense heat would have been overcome with enough waters from constant rainfall.

According to Adediran ‘’ any farmer that plants now is taking a big risk, because it is not the usual pattern. The safe period for planting starts from the end of March.  The rain that falls now may stop anytime or seize at anytime for about three to four weeks, and if the plants have already grown up and the leaves that are already formed have no more water, then there will be a problem. So that is why we advise farmers to wait until the rains are steady. Although, at times because of global warming, the rain pattern may shift and may be to the advantage of whoever that plants now, but it cannot be guaranteed just  according to NIMET’’ 

He added that ‘’ i  want to say that we had late rainfall last year and it is not expected to fall now but it has started falling already, but however early it could be, the idea of  planting now is a risk to the farmers. But whoever is ready to take the risk, should be warned, and not in a large expanse of farmland so as to minimize losses, but as from the end of March, especially in the southern states.  In the northern states, it is not guaranteed; you know they only have one major rainy season.  Their starts from June- July and continues till November as the one major rainy season.  But Abuja area is southern guinea savannah it is not like the core West and Northern Nigeria and the East. Finally, what i can say is that anybody that plants now is taking a risk’’

This position was also supported and buttressed by Prof. Abubarka of IAR who said that ‘’ Farmers should not rush into planting based on these February and early March rainfall because this period is too early for planting because of the heat that may follow in the following weeks before the ending of the month of March which may be very devastating to crops. In my own view farmers should exercise some patient as they might risk losing their crops after planting due to the heat that could follow the rain. Farmers should observe till after March when the rain may have become steady’’