Jutha Gupah, Gombe
April 6, 2023.
The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) in collaboration with the Gombe Agricultural Development Programme (GADP) has trained agricultural extension workers to boost farmers’ productivity and incomes in the state.
The training of extension workers was to enable farmers embrace and share NIMET weather forecasts during the 2023 cropping season.
Declaring the training session open, yesterday (Thursday), in Gombe, NIMET’s Technical Officer, Isham Ibrahim, disclosed: “The weather and climatic predictions for 2023 will be favourable in this year’s farming activities than 2022 in the state.”
He said the meeting with critical stakeholders from the 11 Local Councils was to get farmers informed about the rainfall patterns provided by NIMET.
“The rightful information on rainfall patterns to the farmers is to improve farmers’ agricultural activities for increased crops’ yields,” he said.
He said the information about the annual rainfall patterns would help farmers know when to plant and harvest their various crops at the end of every rainy season.
Continued; “This year won’t be like the previous one; where there were lots of events of excess rainfall which resulted in flooding many farmlands,”
Responding, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, represented by the Commissioner, Muhammad Magaji, said the meeting was timely as farmers approach the wet season.
He noted that the weather forecast remained a critical aspects of agriculture in contemporary farming practices.
“It will provide farmers the details of weather conditions,” he said, as well as when to plant and which crops to be planted in each of the three senatorial districts in the state.
He, therefore, urged the farmers to adopt the use of the critical information and the outcome of research made available by stakeholders through extension officers.
The Director Technical Services, Gombe State Agricultural Development Programme (GADP), Dr. Joseph Hussaini said the rainfall prediction for the 2023 wet season is good news for farmers across the state.
He noted that there would be less dry spells and the flood may not be too excessive as witnessed in 2022.
He urged the farmers embrace the use of certified seeds that could fit into the raining season as predicted by NIMET.
“There are variety of seeds that match rainfall patterns and for Gombe state,” adding that farmers should go for early maturing variety of seeds that mature between 90 and 100 days.
Hussaini advised the farmers against engaging in panic planting to avert economic losses through replanting farmlands that had been planted before.
“We don’t expect any crop failure if all indices of production are accurate,” he assured.
End.
