The
Agricultural Service Training Centre(ASTC)
in Plateau state has trained some farmers in the production of improved
variety of vegetables preparatory to go into double season cropping to address
increasing demand of vegetables in the state.
The
General Manager of ASTC Mr. Oren Shaked, who made this
known, said that the ASTC, through its greenhouse project in the state has
trained some farmers on the use of improved tomato and other vegetable
varieties for production through the wet season using the greenhouse style.
Shaked confirmed to NaijaAgroNet that one can grow anything in a
greenhouse and at any time of the year, noting that if tomato is grown in the
greenhouse during the rainy season it can sell at a very high price because it
is scarce in the market.
He
said one can also reduce to a minimum the use of chemicals in the greenhouse
because the plants are protected from insects thereby requiring very little
insecticide or fungicide, adding that a lot of consumers today look for organic
crops that are grown without the use of fertilizer and chemicals.
“The
climate under the greenhouse is being controlled, crops grown in the house are
better than those grown in the open field and during the harmattan or dry
season, the nights are very cold but in the greenhouses it is hot, the
temperature is being controlled so you can get better crops,” he said.
NaijaAgroNet gathered that even though
greenhouses provide better and improved ways of crop production especially to
local irrigation farmers whose vegetables are exposed to harsh climatic
conditions as well as pests and diseases, some of the farmers nevertheless see this
advanced system of farming as mere fancy which is incapable of upstaging the
conventional farming system.
“We
also harvest all those strawberries, cherry tomatoes that the White people
harvest in their greenhouse but we don’t cover the place because you will be
putting a farmer in difficulty if you ask him to go into that system because he
won’t be able to afford it,” a farmer said.
*With
additional report from Daily Trust
AN/GEE
pix: Gov David Jang of Plateau state
