Plateau State commissioner for Agriculture Dr Hosea Finangwal says farmers in the state have lost potatoes worth N18 billion to potato blight disease.
Finangwal made the assertion when delegates from the National Root Crops Research Institute; Umudike paid the ministry a courtesy visit yesterday in Jos.
The commissioner said out of the 150,000 hectares of land cultivated; 52,000 hectares were infected with blight resulting to 2,000 farmers losing N18bn worth of potatoes.
Finangwal said the ministry was proactive in reporting the case to Gov. Simon Lalong who immediately reported to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
He said the Federal Ministry of Agriculture sent delegates from the research institute to the state to seek ways to proffer solution in curbing the disease.
In his remarks, head of the delegation and director, biotech department, Dr Joseph Onyeka, said they were in Jos to discuss with stakeholders on how to develop viable resistant seedlings. Onyeka said the team would also look into the tissue culture laboratory to make it functional.
“We want to find preventive measures, upgrade the tissue culture so that quality materials and disease-free materials can be gotten,” he said. Onyeka said the team would also interface with the state government to work on storage facilities, tolerant varieties and processing facilities.
The director said the team had come to help resolve reoccurring outbreak of the disease. He said farmers need to learn how to use fungicides as fungicides are protective not curative.
“Farmers must be sensitized and properly taught how to use fungicides and also take instructions from extension workers,’’ Onyeka said. He said the group of professionals available on ground would work with stakeholders in the state to resolve the problem. (NAN)
