Some ginger farmers in the Bwari Area Council of the FCT have called on the federal government to investigate and curb the spread of a strange disease affecting ginger farms.
The farmers appealed in an interview on Monday in Abuja, saying the strange disease was attacking ginger farms in Kaduna State.
They expressed concern that the disease may spread beyond its major producing state into neighbouring communities with smaller farms.
Akuso Philip, one of the farmers in Bwari, said the disease, suspected to be fungal, demanded the government’s swift response to tackle its spread against cash crop production.
“If care is not taken and the government does not act fast, we may not have ginger samples to produce next year because the disease is killing the crop to the roots, and Nigeria is a major producer.
“We have never seen anything like this on ginger. It starts with spots on the leaves, and then it will turn red and suddenly dries up the leaves down to the roots, killing the crop,’’ he said.
Mr Philip said the worst was when fertilisers were applied to the crop.
“I have a bag of fertiliser that I bought for my ginger farm, but I cannot apply it because my crop has been infected already,’’ he said.
Another farmer, Yakubu Ezra, who said his farm on the border between Kaduna State and Bwari in the FCT, expressed regret and disappointment after putting in effort and the unexpected happened.
“The disease started around July in Jaba Local Government Area, which is close to Bwari, and my farm is around that axis and by mid-August, my farm was infected.
”This happened with no information on how to salvage the situation. We tried different types of pesticides, including pesticides for beans, to see if it would work, but to no avail,” Mr Ezra said.
Ginger farmers in southern Kaduna, who are major producers of the commodity, have suffered a setback in production following the strange disease.
This led to a loss of billions of naira for farmers and the economy.
(NAN)