Tackling the problem of weed and pests in farm crops || My Actifit Report Card: May 17 2020

Tackling the problem of weed and pests in our farms

Welcome to my blog again dear friend. Today we’re going to look on some of challenges facing farmer’s from weed especially in developing countries of the world. It takes a lot to manage weeds and farm crops, it’s indeed time consuming when trying to remove weeds from farm crops, it might not be a problem for those into commercial and greenhouse farming considering the level of technology involved in farming.

What about those poor farming in developing countries who have not come to that level of advanced farming techniques? That’s where this article comes it. Today am going to use my own experience as case studies on this article. We may not cover all aspects on this particular post, maybe we should go bit by bit on this topic.

Before coming to the damages that local farmers sustains from pests attacking their crops, let’s start with weeds and how to manage them. Ideally, weeds should be taking care of before crops are sown in the ground, please if you’re in developing countries especially in Africa and your still applying the methods of removing weeds manually; with hoe or with your barehands, or maybe you still hire laborers to weed your farm, why not try this little technique that I’m using which is working for me?

Preparing for your cultivation

After you have gotten a land for your farming, of course you already determined what type of crop/s that suits you best, that’s what will determine your best approach to weeds. This year, I have a cassava, yam, cocoa yam, maize farm and many other crops, I also have a farm where I mixed these crops grouping them according to how they accommodate each other in the farm.

Using herbicides for control of emerging weeds in our farm.

I’ll suggest my favorite herbicide, maybe you can also research for more and the one available in your state.

I use this particular herbicide from Zhenjiang Xinan Chem. Ind. Group Co. Limited. They called it FORCE UP. Please pardon the tear on the picture, I’m surprised the how the most important area is forced out.

Anyway, let’s get into the little details about this particular herbicide, active ingredient, application and caution.

Active Ingredients

•   Glyphosate 
•   Isopropylamine salt

The combination of these chemicals has emerged as a non-selective systemic foliar-applied agricultural herbicide which is excellent in the control of strong perennial grasses, including broad-leaved weeds.

Okay, let’s go little deeper about this my favorite herbicide. Force Up doesn’t have any negative impact on your soil considering the fact that it doesn’t have any residual soil activity, it’s it venom are poured and are absorbed by the green parts of weeds and not even by mature brown back and stems. In those days, I feared used those chemicals to tackle weeds thinking that it may deteriorate the goodness of natural farmlands, not until I become convinced after my many times of experiments, research on how those active ingredients works on the green plants.

Force Up contains 5-enolpyruvyshikimate-3-phosphate (EPSP) which is an enzyme of the aromatic acid biosynthetic pathway which prevents synthesis of essential aromatic amino acids that are needed for protein biosynthesis.

Understanding the types of grasses that can be eradicated with this chemical formula

We have what is called annual and perennial broad-leaved weeds; those weeds that comes annually and dies during dry season, their examples are (Chromolaene odorata, Lantana camara, etc).

For effective application

Based on weed type, you can apply it this way:

Annual grasses and broad-leaved weeds: 3L/ha

Biannual, perennials and broadleaved weeds: 6L/ha

For tree stump regrowth and control, maybe old sugarcane farm eradication and other undesirable shrubs: 6-12L/ha.

Force Up®️ should be applied at 100 to 400 liters spray volume per ha depending on the density of the weed being controlled.

Adequate protection should also be maintained during spraying, in my case, I use nose mask 😷 for protection against the eyes and mouth
I bought this mask around $3

This type is better that surgical mask that most people are using at this pandemic period.

Maybe in my next article, I’ll go further in explaining the method of spraying it, the sprayer itself and other herbicide that works together with this.

Thanks for coming around today and happy Sunday.

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