Halima Musa
31 October 2008
Dutse — In an effort to boost agriculture and ensure food security in the state, Jigawa state government has purchased spraying chemicals and other crops protecting equipment worth N40 million to fight the invading quela birds and grasshoppers.
Quela bird is a small bird of the weaver family.
Like most weavers, the bird is a migratory bird which crosses into Jigawa State from Niger Republic.
Over the years the birds have become a menace to the indigenous farmers. This was disclosed by a deputy director in the state ministry for Agriculture and Natural Resources Alhaji Usman Sule at the end of the spraying exercise at Madana village in Maigatari local government.
Sule said government was not taking the issue of the invading birds and the insects lightly that was why such amount of money was expended in purchasing the chemicals "government is poise to protect farms from the invasion of these birds and insect and there is no amount of money that is too big in that respect.
We want to ensure that crops grown in Jigawa are fully protected", he said.
Earlier in his speech the supervisory councillor on Agriculture Alhaji Tata Alhassan asked resident to report the presence of the birds or insect to the local government council on time so that quick measure would be taken to curtail their spread and protect the crops.
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