Some farmers in parts of Dutse Local Government area of Jigawa State have started planting their crops following heavy rainfall recorded in the area, a check by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reveals.
A NAN correspondent, who visited some of the farming communities on Sunday, found that farmers were busy tilling and planting crops on their farms at the same time.
The farmers were seen planting assorted crops on their farms after a downpour on Saturday which lasted for about two hours in the area.
The farmers had earlier cleared and applied local manure on the farms.
Malam Amadu Abubakar, a farmer in Gandu village, told NAN that he was planting groundnut, millet and sorghum.
Other farmers, Muhammad Umar Abdullahi Abdussalam and Tunga Abdussalam, were also seen planting the same crops on their respective farmers.
The farmers said people in the area were encouraged by the level of rainfall recorded in the area.
Another farmer at Shaiskawa village, Hussain Abdulkadir Hussaini, said himself and other farmers in the area were motivated to start planting by the volume of rain recorded.
Malam Shahudi Garba, a farmer in Baranda village, said majority of farmers in the area had planted on their farms due to the volume of rain recorded on Saturday.
Garba added that farmers in the area had planted seasame, millet and sorghum, saying that that all farmers in the community area were ready for this year’s cropping season.
“In fact, some farmers here in Baranda village had already planted since last two weeks, while other planted after Saturday’s rainfall,’’ he said.
However, some of the farmers, Bashir Ahmad and Malam Ilyasu Muhammad, said they were ready to plant but had to wait for bull cart owners to till their farms before they could plant.
“Our major challenge now is that most of bull cart owners are not readily available as they have to finish with their farms before ours, even though we pay them,” they said.
NAN reports that despite the volume of rainfall recorded, majority of the farmlands have yet to be prepared by their owners for planting.
NAN