Quarantine service confirms infestation of farms in Benue

The Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) has confirmed 100 percent infestation of farms by army worms in the three senatorial districts of Benue State. Daily Trust earlier reported the lamentation of maize farmers in the state over this year’s harvest occasioned by leaves eating worms which ravaged their entire farms. Head of the NAQS delegation […]

The Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) has confirmed 100 percent infestation of farms by army worms in the three senatorial districts of Benue State.
Daily Trust earlier reported the lamentation of maize farmers in the state over this year’s harvest occasioned by leaves eating worms which ravaged their entire farms.
Head of the NAQS delegation on investigation to the state, acting director John Ogbaje, while briefing the commissioner for Agriculture, James Anbua, on his team’s findings in Makurdi, said that maize farms visited were suspected to have been infested by pests known as army worms.
“We have observed that it wasn’t stem-borer but army worms’ infestation all over the farms visited in all zones in the state. We observed 100 percent infestation of army worms. We have taken samples for testing when we get to Abuja. In all the locations, we suspected 90 percent of army worms and just 10 percent of stem-borer,” Ogbaje said.
The acting director, however recommended an interim measure against the pest, saying that large farm owners should hire trained managers who should immediately report incidents to the appropriate quarters and apply recommended as well as appropriate fertilizer within the appropriate time limit.
Also speaking, the head of the Post-Entry Quarantine Diagnostic Station at NAQS, Dr. Ogunfunmilayo Akindele, said there were no preventive methods at the moment against the new army worms but that a combination of two insecticides could bring down the population of the pests.
Akindele advised that farmers should spray their crops exactly 14 days after planting as no seeds were yet resistant to the army worm, noting that maize was the host of the new pest in the country.
Our correspondent reports that the team visited farms in Taraku, Otukpo, Makurdi, Guma and Vandekiya among other areas in the state where they noticed between 15 and 50 hectares of maize farms completely devastated by the army worms.
 Reacting to the experts’ findings, the state’s agriculture commissioner, Anbua, urged the federal government to intervene urgently so that farmers in the state are not disillusioned.
The chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) in the state, Comrade Aondona Kuhe, appreciated the intervention of the federal government’s agency and called for lasting remedy from the authorities. He lamented that the extent of devastation by the pest on maize farms could create hunger in the state and the country next year.