Next steps after the rains
The long dry spell in January calls for climate resilience training for farmers.
AWEEK ago, farmers were counting their losses after most areas didn’t receive any rains for the greater part of January. Some crops had wilted beyond recovery. The early-planted crop seems to be worst affected as it was at tasselling stage. Rains that started to fall around January 29 have brought hope and relief.
The question is: now that we have received rains, what next?
Many farmers whose early crop is a write-off due to the dry January spell are eager to know whether they can still plant maize, and if not, what else can they plant?
Short-season maize can be planted, but one should have irrigation facilities to finish off the crop at the end of April when the rains are likely to have stopped.
A very early maturing maize variety reaches maturity in 127 days whilst an early maturing variety matures in 134 days.
In most cases, it becomes risky as temperatures will start to drop from late April.
What else can farmers plant now and still expect the crop to reach maturity?
Sugar beans take just 90 days to reach maturity and therefore if planted now, they should reach maturity by end of April.
The planting season for sorghum is just closing, but if a farmer has irrigation facilities, he/she can gamble.
I would recommend all those farmers looking for some crops to grow to start thinking of winter crops instead.
This is the best time to plant green beans, mange tout or sugar snap peas. However, they require irrigation and if growing sizeable amounts, a dependable market.
Farmers can also start sowing onions onto seedbeds now.
These normally take four to six weeks to reach transplanting stage and such a crop constitutes an early crop that will hit the market before it is flooded.
Most farmers had stopped weeding and applying top-dressing fertilisers.
The major tasks for the majority of farmers will, therefore, be weeding and top-dressing their crops. However, the rains have been persistent in some areas, thereby depriving farmers time and space to weed.
In some cases maize had grown too high for tractor-drawn operations, and post-emergence herbicides are recommended.
I will talk more about top-dressing.
There is a big difference between a crop that is top-dressed under moist and dry conditions.
The most readily available top-dressing fertiliser on the market today is urea and this does best under moist conditions.
However, since most farmers are used to ammonium nitrate, the use of urea by farmers for the first time often leads to fertiliser burning where leaves will show some drying along the edges.
It is, therefore, important to be able to determine the amount of top-dressing fertiliser that one wants to apply and determine the right size fertiliser cup or be able to calibrate the vicon spreader to apply the correct amount.
If a farmer wants to apply 300kg of AN per hectare, he/she should first establish the plant population.
Between-row spacing of 0,9m and an in-row spacing of 0,25m gives a plant population of 44 444. (1ha is 10 000 square metres)
Consideration should then be given to the germination percentage.
If 80 percent germination was achieved, it means the plant population is approximately 35 555.
The germination percentage is a function of the seed quality as well as the soil tilth (condition) at the time of planting.
Poor seed will achieve lower germination percentage. This is normally the case where farmers use seed carried over from the previous season, but where the seed was poorly stored.
Soil condition relates to the moisture on the land; was the land wet enough to germinate seed or did you receive enough rainfall/ irrigation to germinate the planted seed?
How fine the soil is also matters. Land that is poorly prepared and has lots of clods will not facilitate good germination.
To arrive at the size of the fertiliser cup to be used, one should first convert the fertiliser rate into grammes, ie 300kg/haX1 000g = 300 000 grammes/ha, then divide this by the plant population i.e. 300 000 grammes/ha divided by 35 555 plants/ha = 8,5 grammes per plant or cup number 8 per plant to the nearest.
Fertiliser cups are available for sale at most outlets that sell fertilisers for about US$1 for five.
Farmers should also appreciate that while AN has 34,5 percent nitrogen, urea has 46 percent. Many farmers make the mistake of applying the same amount of urea as they would AN.
Those with large hectarages cannot use fertiliser cups. They can use the “Chola” method or the vicon spreader.
With Chola, workers fit a plastic tube at the corner of a fertiliser bag and simply drill the AN as they walk through the field.
However, since the farmer still wants to apply cup number 8 to each plant, it is important to give each worker a cup number 8 cup so that they have an appreciation of how much fertiliser the cup holds. Workers release fertiliser that is equivalent to the cup at each plant.
If the crop is closely planted, they are free to just drag the “Chola” through without lifting.
Farmers should estimate the amount of fertilisers a worker needs to go to the end of the field and back to the re-filling point.
I want to emphasise the importance of timing one’s top-dressing fertiliser applications.
It is best to stock your top-dressing fertiliser and target to top-dress at approximately two, four and sixweek stages.
However, as soon as it rains towards the second, third or fourth week, one should move in and apply top-dressing. I encourage farmers to take advantage of the current rains to apply top-dressing fertilisers.
One of the most menacing problems faced by farmers are armyworm and stalk-borer. These pests attack plants from the top and burrow into the funnel.
There is talk of many indigenous concoctions that can kill these pests.
Some include washing powder mixed with salt; plant extracts like neem and garlic mixed in water and sand and ash.
Where there is abundant labour and small hectarages, farmers have crushed the eggs and caterpillars. This is because chemicals are expensive for many farmers.
Recommended chemicals for army-worm include Ampligo, Coragen, Emamectin benzoate, Vantex, Belt and Ecoterex. There are also Carbaryl 85 percent WP, Karate/Lambda (at a higher rate of 200ml per hectare), and Karate Zeon.
For stalk-borer control, available chemicals are Kombart, Dipterex, and Lambda (at a lower rate of 100mls per hectare).
Farmers should make sure to direct the spray into the maize funnel.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation, in collaboration with the Livelihood and Food Security Programme, is training extension officers and workers on proper identification of pests. Government could adopt some of these strategies.
Identifying eggs and larvae is crucial in the early spraying of chemicals.
It is also important for farmers to practice Integrated Product and Pest Management. From West Africa, the programme has spread to Guinea, Mauritania, Niger, Tanzania and Zambia.
IPPM was established to improve the skills of smallholder farmers and to raise their awareness on good agricultural practices through discovery-based learning.
The programme uses a farmer field school approach where farmers are taught new skills and knowledge through a practical and hands-on approach.
IPPM in West Africa has included teaching farmers climate resilience in the face of global warming and climatic change, diversification and rotation of crops.
The long dry spell in January calls for climate resilience training for farmers.
Some areas are getting more incidents of army-worm attacks because of monoculture; growing maize after maize on the same piece of land.
Whilst maize is our staple food, farmers should be encouraged to rotate with legumes like groundnuts, cowpeas and soya beans.
It is also important to learn alternating use of chemicals to control pests as some of these pests can easily develop resistance to some chemicals.
There have been stories of the armyworm resisting some chemicals, locally.
I can only hope that the current rains will persist so that we can recover some of the crops that had wilted badly.
Wish all farmers a successful season.