Farmers decry lack of govt help as diseases ravage farms

Some of the farmers that spoke to our correspondent in Dadin Kowa said within the past two weeks when the disease was noticed around their farms, over 80 percent of the entire rice farmland in the area destroyed, lamenting that the government has yet to assist them in dealing with the situation.Some of the farmers […]

Some of the farmers that spoke to our correspondent in Dadin Kowa said within the past two weeks when the disease was noticed around their farms, over 80 percent of the entire rice farmland in the area destroyed, lamenting that the government has yet to assist them in dealing with the situation.
Some of the farmers said that no any government official has visited the affected farms.
Bello Ibrahim, a rice farmer, said the rice blast disease was still ravaging their rice farms, adding that his entire farm was affected by the disease which started by afflicting a small portion of the farm.
On whether he received any form of assistance from the government, Ibrahim said neither the state nor the federal government assisted him.
He said farmers are trying check the spread of the disease but, so far, all their attempts have failed to yield any result.
“The extension workers that we are expecting to visit our farms on daily or weekly basis have not visited the farm even for a day. And even if this chemical were given to farmers, it did not reach our farmers in Dadin Kowa,” he said.
He called on government to employ more extension workers to reach all nook and crannies of the state to improve farming activities.
The secretary of Dadin Kowa Farmers Association Mohammed Sani Hassan said the disease affected his farm also.
He said he was expecting to harvest 47 bags of paddy rice from his one hectare rice farm but with the situation now, he is not expecting anything more than 10 bags.
Asked if he has received any form of assistant from the state government, Hassan said: “As we are talking with you now, we farmers in Dadin Kowa have not received anything from the government.”