Fall Armyworms usually devastate farming and negatively affect farmers’ bottom line, especially in the northern part of Nigeria. But Martha Solomon, the General Manager of Prexea Technologies Limited and also the Project Lead of Sentinel X, the latest agricultural technology from the United States, says the technology not only fights Fall Armyworms, but also strengthens the crop’s defence and immune systems. Oluchi Chibuzor brings the excerpts: Many, except farmers directly affected, don’t know much about Fall Armyworms. What do they do to crops, especially maize? Let me just sumarise it: they destroy the crop, maize and ensure farmers don’t get expected returns from their investments and labour. In our discussion prior to this chat, you mentioned Sentinel X as a new agricultural technology. Can you throw light on it? Sentinel X is an innovative agricultural technology developed by Informiton, our US partners who are the technical lead and owner of Sentinel X model. Sentinel X is an innovative crop protection technology to help farmers protect crops from Fall Armyworm (FAW) through early detection of crop stress and activation of the plant’s natural defense mechanisms. Unlike conventional approaches that rely heavily on repeated pesticide applications, Sentinel X supports healthier crop development by stimulating the plant’s own protective response, helping to reduce crop damage while lowering production costs and minimising environmental impact.  You know this is a new technology and there might likely be resistance, especially from farmers used to insecticides. How has the reception been? Before we go ahead to do anything, what we did was to carry out a trial in Nigeria the technology had been deployed in Kenya and it was working. So in the agricultural sector, seeing is believing. You can’t just bring a model or product in which you have not confirmed to be working. So we decided to carry out a trial in two states: Kaduna and Kano to see the effect of this Sentinel X. Over time the monitoring and evaluation report showed this technology works and the effect was so, so glaring.  Let me also add that Sentinel X is the overall technology. But there are two products in one. One is the Sentinel X Pest Control which is meant to replace insecticides. So the name is Sentinel X Pest Control which is actually the alternative for insecticides. It could be recalled that we did trial for both of them. So apart from Sentinel X Pest Control, there is also Sentinel X Crop Booster; which is more or less like a fertiliser. People think it is just one technology. No, it is not. When we get to the commercialisation stage, we would be selling both but in three different packages. In other words, farmers can buy the Sentinel X Pest Control alone, buy the Sentinel X Crop Booster alone or buy both. So it is three packages. Though naturally, we will always advise our farmers buy the two together. Why do you advise that? The Sentinel X we have now is primarily for Fall Armyworm in maize. But the Sentinel X Crop Booster can be used for any agricultural produce. And because of the massive success of the pilot scheme, we have been getting a lot of calls from the ministry, farmers that we should make it available. Even the Sentinel X Pest Control can also be used against Absoluter, the pest that affects tomato. Is this technology an insecticide and how does it work? It is not like an insecticide but the use of photonic light rays. It uses an AI tool to activate these light rays and make the plant activate its own natural defense mechanisms to become resistant to this Fall Armyworm. So, we are not applying anything nor using any synthetic or physical chemicals as we all know. What we do is that since the plants have their own physiological defensive mechanism, we are only activating them to become resistant to this Fall Armyworm. So, it is like boosting the immune system of the plants? Yes, and then make them resistant to the worm and also make the plants no longer palatable to the Fall Army Worm to feed on. This worm is also commonly called stem-borer and it affects both the crop vegetative state, as well as the cobs. But Sentinel X makes the plants resistant to its attack from the vegetative state to the harvest stage. If I may ask, is this technology a one-time use? Yes, it is. All the farmer needs to provide is the coordinates of the farm and we already have our field agents and agricultural extension workers in the area who we use. They are the ones that will handle it since most of the farmers are not educated. Once we get the coordinates, we can apply no matter the number of hectares. It is like magic from heaven. Now, let’s go to the first trial. When the pilot trial was carried out, did you carry the local farmers and other relevant stakeholders along?
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