The Kaduna State Government on Saturday expressed concern on the reported outbreak of a rice disease, known as rice blast, in some parts of the state.
Officials of the the Kaduna Agricultural Development Project (KADP) are already expressing fear that the infection, caused by the bacteria, Magnaporthe grisea, would affect the annual projected rice yield in the state.
KADP's Media officer, Malam Shehu Aliyu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna that the outbreak had been reported in Birnin-Gwari and Maigana farming zones of the state.
"This is where the crop is cultivated in commercial quantity and the disease is currently causing rust on rice leaves."
Aliyu said extension service workers had been deployed to the areas to take samples for laboratory analysis to ascertain the extent of the outbreak and the total areas affected.
He said the outbreak in addition to the recent flood disaster may likely affect the projected rice yield of the state during the current harvest.
The media officer said the 'State Area Yield Survey' on rice is put at three metric tonnes per hectre, and farmers cultivate an average of 300,000 hectares per year.
Aliyu said the state also produce an average of one million metric tonnes of rice including 75,000 metric tonnes cultivated through irrigation.
He appealed to rice farmers not to panic, assuring that the state government had taken steps to ascertain the cause of the outbreak in order to control its spread.
Rice blast is a debilitating disease which affects all the rice-growing regions of the world, causing losses of up to 30 per cent of the global rice harvest.
The symptoms of the disease include lesions on all parts of the plant, including leaves, leaf collar, necks, panicles, pedicels and seeds.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the affected farms are located in Birnin Gwari, Giwa, Kaduna North, Kaduna South, Chikun, Kubau and Kudan local government areas.
Others areas are Zaria, Sabon Gari, Ikara, Makarfi and Soba local government areas, all in the northern part of the state where both up-land and low-land rice are produced in commercial quantity.
NAN
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BOKO HARAM PEACE OVERTURE TO NIGERIA – CONDEMNABLE HAND TWISTING MANDATE OF SATAN That a group of deadly vipers could have the effrontery to call out the Federal Government to a peace parley in far away Saudi Arabia and with nuisance value carriage of demands, part of which was that only names of individuals suggested by them would be welcomed as mediators at the parley must inform reasonable and peace loving people in Nigeria and world over that not only are these Boko Haram people mentally impaired they are devils incarnates out for deadly sinister motives. First and foremost the truth must be said without qualm of fear or disfavor that all the names of those suggested as mediators by the Boko Haram terrorists are Muslims and the peace parley venue Saudi Arabia suggested by them is the Holy Land of Islam an epicenter of peace. A careful look therefore of the aforementioned suggestion would be discovered Boko Haram giving bad name to Islam, a religion symbiote with peace and expectantly symbolizing peace and peaceful correlating values. Although like other religions, Islam was meant by the Almighty God as a vehicle of seeking peace and peaceful interrelationship between God the creator and the created man. Mention must be made of the fact that Boko Haram Godless insurgents have continued waging deadly war against the nationhood of Nigeria the past two years with loss of well over 2000 innocent lives of Muslims, Christians and the uncommitted, thousands more badly injured and or incapacitated and with loss of valuables worth billions of Naira. The most pertinent questions therefore to be asked at this stage are: Why was Saudi Arabia the suggested venue Boko Haram and all those mentioned as mediators being Muslims. Altruistically Nigeria is a secular State not adopting any religion as its official and those killed by Boko Haram are as well of diverse religions. If peace must at all be discussed between Nigeria and nuisance value Boko Haram of Dracula blood drinking nature must it be at the expense of Right to Fair Hearing of those of other religions? This must explain to discerning minds that the peace overture made by Boko Haram is not only laced with evil intentions it connotes hand twisting mandates of Satan. There is no way a good government led by leadership of vision, courage and determination would succumb to terrorist’s gambits. Great leaders any where in the whole world are never seen negotiating with Satan and terrorists, therefore Nigeria must not be an exception. This no doubt is the time President Goodluck Jonathan’s leadership quality must be seen proved. His courage to face and defeat the challenges and mandate of Satan without buckling is right now in global focus. The good people of Nigeria and free world are indeed watching.
Dr. Olapade Agoro (Aladura Patriarch) Owa’Tapa of Itapa Ijesaland National Chairman/ former Presidential Candidate, National Action Council (NAC)
May you live long Sir. May the Almighty preserve people of wisdom and courage of your type, and may the leadership of our dear country have the guts to face this monumental challenge. I however want to add that so far, every pointer to this issue moves towards politics. The named accomplices, the so called mediators, and all that has to do with BOKO HARAMISM. The masses of this great nation must wake up from slumber. We have a common enemy, and we know that. We should never allow these heartless power mongers set us against ourselves in whatever manner, we have suffered enough.
Apesar de estarmos cada vez mais conscientes quanto ás questões ambientaís as autoridades da Nigéria tem obrigação de acabar com essas epidemias que estão a isolar as regiões agriculas da Nigéria