Some maize farmers in Kano State have resorted to planting sorghum due to the high fertiliser cost.

Checks indicated that a bag of fertiliser costs about N25,000, depending on the type and brand of the commodity.

Muhammad Tukur, a farmer, said every year he planted maize, but this year, he planted guinea corn because of the high cost of fertiliser.

Mr Tukur said that would enable him to spend little money on nursing the crops up to the harvesting period.

Another farmer, Abba Zakariyya, said he planted guinea corn because he could not afford to plant maize due to the cost of fertilisers.

Mr Zakariyya said he used manure and little fertilisers for the crops.

In his contribution, Abdu Ahmad-Manga of the Agronomy Department, Bayero University, Kano (BUK), said guinea corn required less fertilisers than maize.

He said sorghum was an indigenous tropical crop, unlike maize, brought into the country from some parts of the world.

“If you miss fertiliser application at an appropriate time, it will not grow properly, and nothing can be done to change it.

“While for genuine corn, even if you missed the first fertiliser application, one may still apply it and get something because it is more durable than maize,” he said.

He further noted that before the introduction of maize into the country, sorghum was the staple food.

(NAN)