Dr. Elias Amakye, the Ashanti Regional Focal Person of PFAG, who developed the biological solution, said “it is very penetrating and goes into the hide-out of the worms in the crops and kills them in less than five minutes.

[contextly_sidebar id=”wYfYldbdVrGSsln4OebTq2Bhycg6e8DJ”]The biological solution involves mixing chili pepper, garlic and any kind of oil, which should be applied to the hide-out of the fall armyworm on the crop to destroy it.

Dr. Amakye announced this solution at a conference in Tamale organized by PFAG with support from Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), to provide the government with evidence of successes and challenges of the implementation of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), and the Fertilizer Subsidy Programmes.

The PFJ has helped a number of farmers to increase the number of acres of crops they cultivate, but the fall armyworm infestation of some of the maize fields has become a source of worry to farmers, whose fields have been affected.

Dr. Amakye said he applied the solution to parts of his 15-acre maize farm, which was attacked by the fall armyworms at Konongo in the Ashanti Region, and it killed the worms in less than five minutes.

He expressed the hope that government would recognize his solution and encourage farmers to use it to control the fall armyworm infestation of maize crops across the country.

He also appealed to the government to help farmers to fumigate farmlands affected by the fall armyworms this year, saying that was the only way to completely destroy the breeding grounds of the worms to prevent them from resurfacing next farming season.

Mr. Abdul-Rahman Mohammed, President of PFAG, was happy that efforts were being made to find lasting solutions to the fall armyworm challenge, which had caused a lot of damage to crops this year.

–

Source: GNA

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Citi Sports has come across the detailed breakdown of the $9.6 million made available for the 2014 World Cup.

Of interest in the breakdown are fees earmarked for protocol and management members of the Black Stars management committee in the preliminary stages of the competition.

The Black Stars qualification for Brazil 2014 has come with a ferocious debate about how much is prudent to be spent on the campaign in June.

The document Citi Sports has intercepted shows that the seven officials who make up the Black Stars management committee will get more bonuses than the players themselves durig the group stages.

While the players are due $15,000 for winning every game, each committee member gets $15,800.

This amount rises to $21,000 for each member when the team gets to the round of 16 and then to $26,285 at the quarter-final stage.

A semi-final berth gets each member $31,571 and should Ghana reach the final, they get $36,714.

Also of interest is $10,000 allocated for foodstuffs. We understand that the GFA have previously had complaints from players that they miss local Ghanaian food when they travel for tournaments in far away lands.

And then, we have an amount of $150,000 allocated for “protocol.”

It is not clear what protocol will be needed at the World Cup when Fifa always makes provisions for transport, logistics and accommodation throughout the three week tournament.

Something that catches the eye in the breakdown is the $30,000 allocation for laundry, although, again Fifa takes care of all of that.

Full details of the breakdown coming soon…

By: Gary Al-Smith/Citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @garyalsmith

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