The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, has charged the Ginger Blight Epidemic Control Task Force to expedite actions towards finding a lasting solution to the ginger blight disease that has destroyed the cash crop in about four states.

Kyari, who stated this while receiving the National Ginger Seed Roadmap from the Task Force, expressed appreciation to the Chairman of the Task Force, Engr. Abubakar Abdullahi, the Task Force, the National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF), and the Nigeria Agricultural Seed Council for the job done so far.

He specifically commended the NADF for undertaking and delivering on the project as its first assignment after it was established.

“Time is of essence; we still need to double up so that we can meet up with the next planting season, so that we don’t have a repeat of what has happened. We support our farmers, and I want to assure our farmers that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and its agencies are up and doing and we are trying to tackle some of the challenges that we face today,” the Minister noted.

The Task Force Chairman, Engr Abdullahi, while presenting the Ginger Seed Roadmap to the Minister, recalled that the Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, under the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, organised a meeting on the emergency task force to address the ginger blight epidemic in Kaduna State and its environs.

He explained that the disease affected Plateau State, Nasarawa State, and Federal Capital Territory, and many farmers and many farmers in Kaduna State suffered the damage.

“The meeting was held on December 15, 2023. The meeting culminated in the resolution that there is a need to support farmers that incurred losses as the means of their livelihood have been affected.

“The National Root Crop Research Institute should also carry out a comprehensive assessment and research on the courses of the ginger disease epidemic and make appropriate recommendations.

“Also, control practices that will help control the disease were identified, such as shifting cultivation, crop rotation, use of clean ginger seeds, breeding of new varieties that will be resistant to the disease but still retain the peculiar qualities of the Nigerian ginger, and establishment of ginger multiplication centres in the country.

“All these were the efforts put in place by the task force to avert the recurrence of this epidemic,” Engr. Abdullahi noted.

Also, the Executive Secretary of NADF, Mr. Mohammed Abu Ibrahim, told the Minister that he had mandated the NADF to respond to one of the mandates of its Act, which is responding to emergency situations within the sector.

He said, upon the Minister’s instruction, NADF has been admitted into the relief and alleviation committee of the Ginger Blight Epidemic Control Task Force.

“The NADF has been tasked to provide relief materials to the affected and most vulnerable smallholder farmers; we did this as a means of economic livelihood recovery and to promote crop rotation with the belief that crop rotation has the capacity to curb the growth of that dangerous disease.

“The intervention for the smallholder farmers covered five thousand hectares. We went on to host the Ginger roadmap that the report is being presented today so that there will be a policy guideline towards the recovery of ginger,” he explained.

Furthermore, Ibrahim stated that NADF, at the conclusion of these two schemes, also went on to do the second iteration of its intervention, which is to get involved directly and do direct investment into the cultivation of ginger seeds.

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