By Umar Sa’id, Bauchi
Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security yesterday flagged off aerial spray of Quella birds in Bauchi at the Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa International Airport (SATBIA).
Speaking during the flagging off ceremony in Bauchi, the Minister in charge of the Ministry, Sen Abubakar Kyari assured farmers in the North-East sub-region of adequate supply of pesticide in order to protect their produce from crops pests especially Quella birds.
Represented by the Zonal Director of the Ministry in Bauchi, Mr Daniel Abarshi, the Minister described Quella birds as the most destructive of the pests which if left unattended to can cause severe loss of farm produce to the farmers during this year’s farming season.
The Minister however said that the Ministry will always embark on preventive measures to ensure that farmers got the best of harvests of their crops at all times of the year, saying the focus of the administration is to ensure availability of food and promote food security in the country.
According to him, the exercise which is a periodic one will tackle the menace of Quella birds which are destructive in nature stressing that the exercise will protect dry season farmers especially rice and other cereals.
He then urged the state government to complement the efforts by following up with the ground exercise after the aerial spray in order to make it very effective.
He then appealed to the people not to see the dead birds as an easy and free meal as it will be poisoning to eat them having been sprayed just as he also warned them against using the waters for the moment.
Earlier, Governor Bala Mohammed represented by the Commissioner of Agriculture, Prof Simon Yalams commended the Federal Government for the exercise saying that it will go a long way in encouraging farmers to do more in order to have bumper harvest.
He said his administration is focused on ensuring that agriculture which is the mainstay of the state’s economy was boosted, assuring that his administration will complement the efforts of the Federal Government by ensuring that ground exercise was done immediately the aerial spray was concluded.
Bala Mohammed also stated that the sum of N45 million has been approved for the procurement of Agrochemical and other equipment in response to a recent outbreak of insects and pests in farmlands across some local government areas of the state.
He said that the move was to ensure timely and effective control of the outbreak due to its emergency need, describing agriculture as the backbone of Bauchi state economy, saying that the sector employs over 75% of the State.
