Cross River ADP Manager Decries Lack Of Extension Workers 

By Our Reporter 

The zonal manager of the Cross River Agricultural Development Project (CRADP) Mr Mark Sunny Ewa has decried the lack of agriculture extension workers in the state.

Ewa, who Superintends over the five Local Government Areas in the northern Senatorial District of the state including Ogoja, Yala, Bekwara, Obudu and Obanliku LGAs hinted that only 11 field extension workers services the entire zone.

This was disclosed to a media nonprofit, Godshield Kanjal Journalism Foundation through its Community Vox pop initiative.

The initiative seeks to report the underreported happenings in underserved communities especially in hard-to-reach areas hoping action follows by the relevant authorities.

Due to lack of staffing the ADP can not meet up with the education and training of rural farmers to adhere to Good Agricultural Practice (GAP), Ewa disclosed.

"In the entire Ogoja LGA we have only 5 agric extension workers, in Yala we have 3 extension workers, in Bekwara we have one extension worker, in Obudu, one, in Obanliku, one, making a total of 11 extension workers in the entire zone of 5 LGAs.

"How do you expect 11 extension workers to cover the entire 5 LGAs with thousands of farmers?

"Since the past 16 years, the state government hasn't employed in this ministry and 90 per cent of the staff are aging already. The last time employment was done in this ministry was 16 years ago", he said.

Ewa, however, raised the alarm to the trend of farmers overusing synthetic fertilizer and herbicide, in growing their crops, which is as a result of the lack of man power of the agency to properly guide the farmers on how to use synthetic fertilizers and chemicals.

He maintained that due to climate change which has resulted in low yield of crops, farmers are ignorantly overusing fertilizer and herbicide to meet up with the high demand of food in the market.

According to him, Farmers no longer follow the instructions and recommended measurement in the application of fetilizer and herbicide.

"You will see a farmer using a full 50kg bag of fertilizer on a small portion of farm. And this farmer will apply this fetilizer twice on the crops before harvesting and the duration for harvesting is very short," he said.

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET) had predicted the weather for Cross River North early 2023.

The prediction shows that the zone will experience severe drought between June to July and flooding in September.

But Mr Ewa argued that farmers are not aware of this weather predictions due to lack of access to information.

"We lack staff in the agency that will penetrate these communities as we are saddle with the responsibility of training of rural farmers.

" there are no Community radio stations to serve these rural farmers as well.

"Once we hear the prediction from NIMET, We try our best to send messages to these farming communities to avoid flood prone areas, but the farmers will never listen because our presence is not there," he said.

September 2022, farmers in northern part of the state experienced severe flooding which ravaged large hectares of farms, leading to shortage of food in the region.

July 2023, there has also been a prolonged drought which has dried up crops in the field.

Many farmers who defy climate change - to meet up with the increasing demand for food, are locally devising other means of growing their crops in a small scale - but the farmers are overusing synthetic fertilizer to boost their yield.

"climate change is a major threat to mankind and planet, my agency lacks the capacity to train farmers on mitigation and other adaptive measures to properly grow their crops.

"And you know how stubborn farmers cab be. When you try to teach them on the modern ways of farming and application of fertilizer, they argue with us, saying they will do it the way they wish because they want massive yield.

"These fertilizers are chemical. Even the herbicide. 

"A farmer will spray his farm with herbicide more than three times in a year. And most times, the crops begin to rotten in the soil. This is the effect of the fertilizer, and when this food is consumed, it is harmful to one's health.

"You see people falling seek every now and then, and when you investigate properly, it may be linked to the food they consume, though I am not a scientist'.

"Okay, listen, lots of Nigerian produced commodities are not accepted in the international market, especially yams, and this is because farmers overuse chemicals in growing these crops.

"Our yams, which shipped abroad, are turned down due to chemicals used in growing them.

"Farmers needs to be well trained. MCross River North before now is a major exporter of food to Cameroon and Equitorial Guinea. But things are no longer the same.

"Corps members and N-power volunteers posted here to assist us, aren't helping matters. They don't come to work. Some will lobby their way and redeployed to other beats," he said.