Some agriculture experts have cautioned local farmers against hasty crop cultivation due to the inconsistent rainfall patterns.
The experts made the call in separate interviews on Wednesday in Lagos.
They urged the farmers to pay close attention to the information and predictions of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) before commencing planting season this year.
A strategic agriculture communication expert and a fellow at the National Agricultural Extension Research and Liaison Services (NAERLS), Dr Ismail Olawale urged the farmers not to plant carelessly.
“Any farmer that wants to plant this year, should be very careful and be cautious. They should follow a lot of weather forecast, especially the one by NIMET in collaboration with the NAERLS.
“We also have our zonal offices where we have sent all these weather predictions to because we attended NIMET inauguration this year, on the yearly forecast. So farmers should be patient.
“Even in the South-south, where is likely for the rain to start early, there is the possibility of heavy wind. Like what happened in Edo state last week, when it rained, the wind was much, even if for nothing, for the safety of farmers themselves, they should hold on.
“You cannot be on the farm when the weather is not yet settled. Up North, the an average farmer is aware that the weather is terribly hot this year,” Olawale said.
He said farmers should secure their seeds and should not rust and start planting.
“There are a lot of reasons why farmers should be cautious this year. At least, they should be calculative and then follow weather forecast consistently. This is not the time of just planting blindly.
“This is not when farmers were planting blindly in those days, they relied on traditional methods which are not so effective due to climate change effects.
“So, what we are saying is that the emerging realities now may likely not make some of these traditional knowledge appropriately accurate,” the expert said.
On his part, Mr Uche Ikenga, a crop farmer and agriculture consultant, said the inconsistent rainfall has delayed planting season and may likely affect this year’s crop harvests.
“We are still watching the water patterns, we cannot commence planting season now due to the erratic weather patterns.
“So, the planting season this year is going to be a bit delayed due to the rain inconsistencies.
“So, we just have to wait for the weather patterns to change, for the rains to start before crop farmers can start cultivating. This delay in the planting season will also affect crop productivity this year.
“For example, potatoes have four planting seasons in a year but due to the delay in the planting season this year, we only have three planting seasons left.
“It is time we adopt irrigation farming and this responsibility largely lies on the government at all levels.
“If we encourage irrigation, it will allow farmers to farm during dry season and all year round,” Ikenga said.
NAN
