‘Gombe targets 53,000 metric tons of rice’

Rice blast was recently noticed in the upper Benue rice irrigation farmlands around Dadin Kowa, in Gombe State. What could be the cause?Rice blast is a disease that affects rice plant and is very common in the field. The agent is the pyriculatea, this is a pathogen that causes the blast disease. It is a […]

Rice blast was recently noticed in the upper Benue rice irrigation farmlands around Dadin Kowa, in Gombe State. What could be the cause?
Rice blast is a disease that affects rice plant and is very common in the field. The agent is the pyriculatea, this is a pathogen that causes the blast disease. It is a fungus and it is highly variable and several races occur. Prevalence of the blast is governed mostly by factors relating to resistance by the host. Usually rice plant suffering from moisture traces are severely attacked especially under upland condition. So the rice blast as I said is a fungal disease that affects rice particularly and is a very common plant disease.
How does it affect the rice?
This blast occurs in four stages, there is what we call the leave blast, which affects the leaves. You see some dotted brownish spots on the leaves and that is called the leave blast. Then we have the collar blast; this is where we have attack at the neck of the leaves that keep the head, the last leaves before the head comes out. You will see at the neck of that leaf some brownish legions on the stem and that is another type of the blast we have and it is called collar blast. Then we have the knot blast which affects the inter knot. You will notice in the plant stem at the joining knots that some of the places become wounded and it will make the plant to cut. This mean the rice plant will not heal and at the end of the day you discover that the farmer will incur a lot of losses.
The last one is the nectre blast.This blast occurs on the rice seed, especially at the stage of heading, before it reaches what we call the door stage. The door stage is the stage at which the greens have feeling.So, during the time the blast occurs, the plant will not have leaves so at the end of the day the plant ends up without forming any seed.
These are the four different types of blasts that occur. Now because blast is just like a contagious disease we have in humans, if a neighbouring farmer has blast in his farm and it is not controlled within two weeks, especially where erosion water can flow from one farm to the other, you discover that the water from the affected farm will carry the pathogens into the farm that was not affected. And that will cause the blast in that farm. So, these are the infectious that can take place in rice blast.Most often it occursdue to lack of moisture.Once there is no enough moisture in the field it will create that situation for the blast pathogen to multiply.
Now the sources of infection come from affected seeds. Any seed that is not treated with seed dressing chemicals, there is a likelihood that it will have the blast disease and most often when the diseases manifest in the field it is a soil borne diseases that will remain there for years. Unless this is addressed in the soil where it is affected, the diseases will continue to persist over the years. And one of the things scientists were able to discover to address this is the use of resistant varieties. Presently we have some varieties that are resistant. These are the seed dressing chemicals and during the time of infection, at the early stage, the chemicals that can be sprayed to control it.
Can the blast affect humans?
At present there is no case that is scientifically tested of human beings being affected after they consumed the rice that is affected by the blast. However, the effect of blast is most noticeable on the rice yield itself. It can make the farmer record less than 30% yield. A farm that is affected by the blast will lose about 70% or be destroyed by it.
Some people are attributing the blast to farmers not practicing shifting cultivation. That they concentrate in farming rice without changing crops for years. What is your view on this?
Yes, if you own a farm the issue of shifting cultivation does not necessarily occur because of the issue of the land tenure system we have. However, my view on this is that farmers should make sure that they treat their seeds before planting. Secondly, they should make sure that they use resistant varieties. Thirdly, they should make sure that immediately they notice this in their field they should go into communal sensitisation so that they can communally address the issue at once to cure the disease. Finally, I suggest that farmers should be changing their seeds after every two years. They shouldn’t be planting from their field product. They should change seeds sources after every two years and they should go for resistant varieties.
Farmers are complaining of near absence of agric extension officers which they say is undermining agriculture in the region. What is happening on that?
This is a very relevant question and that is where the core of the matter is. We have less agric extension staff and that is affecting us seriously especially under the present Agricultural Transformation Agenda. One of our major problems is inadequate personnel, the agric extension workers that are supposed to be going out to the farms to advice and educate the farmers and encourage them and show them the correct thing to be done. Presently in Gombe State, we cannot boast of even 300 extension staff. We have only one extension staff to as many as 2,000 to 3,000 farming families. How can this be enough or cover the farming communities? Definitely we have shortage of extension staff and that is actually what is hampering our efforts in terms of reaching out to the farmers.
With rice blast affecting many farms in the state, how do you hope to achieve the projected 53,000 tons of paddy rice production for this year’s dry season farming?
Based on our projection the disease will not very much affect our target because we have observed that the present situation of blast is located in some few rice clusters. And not much of the areas were affected but the few areas that were affected we have looked into that and then we have given out our plus and minus in terms of estimation. We are very much optimistic that we shall achieve the figure of over 53,000 metric tons. We are so sure by the grace of God looking at how the season has been. As I am talking to you most of the farmers have already harvested their crops and we have an average record of 3.5 metric tons per hectare. That is to tell you others are able to get more or less but on the average we had a record of 3.5 metric tons per hectare.