‘Birds, insects made us to cover our farms with nets’

Malam Musa Maje is a wheat, maize, water melon and pepper irrigation farmer in Hadejia who said since he started farming about eight years ago in the area, there has never been an aerial spray of farmlands, lamenting that insects and birds used to destroy their plants.He said: “Those in authorities are also suffering the […]

Malam Musa Maje is a wheat, maize, water melon and pepper irrigation farmer in Hadejia who said since he started farming about eight years ago in the area, there has never been an aerial spray of farmlands, lamenting that insects and birds used to destroy their plants.
He said: “Those in authorities are also suffering the same loses? The emir of Hadejia is a farmer. The local government chairman and other top officials from Hadejia working in the state capital and Abuja are mainly farmers and these birds and insects attack their farms also. Their farms also suffer the same destructions.
“The birds and insects attack the farms in a way that sometimes they even destroy everything in the farm before the plants could reach the stage of maturity. But with the nets you are sure of reducing the effect of the destruction by, at least, 90 percent.”
Another wheat farmer, Adamu Galanbi, said the birds destroy wheat and rice farms more than any other crop, adding: “You know, we grow wheat here mainly during irrigation. Insects destroy crops more during irrigation because there will be no rainfall to kill them. But during rainfall, not every insect can withstand the rain. With the help of the net, we overcome the birds and the insects.”
Saleh Adamu Azamu is a wheat farmer in Hadejia who explained that farmers in the area prefer planting their wheat during heat period because it takes only seven days to germinate. “You water it only once within the first seven days after planting,” he said, adding: “But if you plant it when the weather is cool, you must water it twice and it takes longer period, like two weeks, to germinate and about 100 days to mature for harvest.
“If you want your wheat to be good, you must stop watering it about 20 days to harvest.”
Explaining how the net works, Malam Jamilu Akarami, a rice farmer in Auyo, said because the net is not clearly visible, when a bird lands on it, its leg gets trapped, adding: “No bird trapped by the net can be able to free itself. You know, the net is elastic so it traps the bird’s leg and it will not be able to free itself until the farmer or children that are passing-by come and catch it.
“Before the invention of this idea, we were using rags to tie around sticks like human beings to scare away monkeys, birds and other animals. There are no more monkeys around the town now. The birds are fast realising that those dole babies are lifeless and cannot do them anything. The net is very effective.”
At Jama’are in Bauchi State, the story is not different as farmers told Daily Trust that no aircraft has ever been assigned to carry out an aerial spray in the area with a view driving away the destructive birds.
Alhaji Haruna Udubo is a major tomato farmer in the area. He laments the neglect by the federal and Bauchi State governments, saying: “I am a retired civil servant and I know that the issue of aerial spray is a joint venture exercise between the states and federal government.
“We are aware that the state government used to organise aerial spray in some farming communities in the state. Since I retired in 2007, I commenced rain fed and irrigation farming in Jama’are but I have never seen an aircraft coming to spray any farm here. But you will hear that it sprays farms in nearby Gombe State and some parts of Bauchi State but they will never assign it to Jama’are.”
Udubo said despite the neglect by the federal and state governments, Jama’are remains the hub of irrigation farming in the state, adding: “Our people are yearning for mechanised farming, but government is not willing to assist us. You have gone round the large farming communities but, did you see any tractor anywhere? You cannot see it because the government refused to give us.
“Even the ones recently distributed by the federal government to states to use for hiring to farmers, none reached here. Not a single one was allocated to Jama’are. Some top government officials shared them and refused to let us have any. That is one of the major setbacks we are having.”