By Ifeanyi Nwoko
For many beans farmers in West Africa, 2017 is one year they all look forward to with great optimism and expectations.
This is because the year will herald the release of a beans variety which will solve the major challenge facing beans farmers: “Maruca” — a pod boring insect that costs farmers as much as 80 per cent, sometimes 100 per cent, yield loss.
Mr Mohammed Birninkudu, a Jigawa-based farmer and a representative of the state’s Agricultural Development Programme (ADP), says that beans are the major food and cash crop for farmers in Jigawa.
He, however, insists that due to the problems of “Maruca” and dearth of storage facilities, the farmers just plant beans to them sell off, with the sole aim of making some money to cultivate other crops that will yield better profits.
“You find farmers growing beans over the year, about three to four times a year, using rainfall, residual moisture and irrigation facilities. Beans are a crop that survives the early drought or the early season of rainfall.
“So, from the northern part to the southern part of the state, there is no area that does not grow cowpea; they grow the improved variety of the crop and they can have as many hectares as they can.
“But the main problem with beans farming is the insects because you have to use chemical spray on the plantations. Using chemical spray, sometimes, costs the farmer a lot and he has to know the intrinsic techniques of the spraying the pesticides.
“Even though the farmers are trained by the ADPs and other organisations on the use of pesticides, there are hazards in using the chemicals because most farmers don’t take appropriate security measures while spraying their farms.
“If you plant cowpea infested with the insects during the planting season, ‘Maruca’ attacks the crop, right from the point of planting the seed to the point of harvest.
“But if a beans farmer can get a ‘Maruca’-free cowpea variety, it adds four-fold increase to his yield and income; definitely, it will be the sole cash crop for the farmer,” he said.
Observers, therefore, describe the proposed release of the new beans variety to farmers as a beacon of hope to many farmers, as it will greatly curtail yield losses incurred via “Maruca” infestation, which according to African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), range between 80 and 100 per cent.
Sponsored by AATF, the “Maruca-resistant beans variety is due for release to farmers in four African countries – Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Malawi — by 2017, says Prof. Prince Addae, the West African Representative of the foundation.
Analysts, nonetheless, wonder about what this new beans variety really is and what it portends for farmers.
Addae expatiates that the “Maruca”-resistant beans is a variety of beans which the insect, which destroys beans pods and flowers in the farms, cannot destroy.
He stresses that spraying beans farms with chemicals does not even guarantee a reprieve from the ravages of “Maruca”, as the insect has somewhat developed some resistance to the chemicals.
Besides, the indiscriminate use of the chemicals poses great risk to the yield and the health of the farmer, he adds.
“In the farmers’ field, the pod borer reduces cowpea yield by 80 per cent and that is a lot of damage. The losses we don’t see because we are not on the farm but it is the cowpea farmer who bears the burden.
“Every time he plants cowpea, he loses 80 per cent of the yield even though he sprays the field with insecticides; if he doesn’t spray, he gets nothing.
“Currently, there is no resistance to ‘Maruca’ among all the 15,000 varieties of cowpea and even the insecticides that are being used are also not very effective.
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source: allafrica.com