Agriculture Extension Officer urges farmers to embrace organic fertiliser


 A former agriculture extension officer, Mr Joseph Adamolekun, on Monday advised farmers in the South West of Nigeria to depend less on inorganic fertiliser to save cost.
Adamolekun told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ilasa, Ekiti, that the soil fertility and climate condition in the region required little or no fertiliiser because it was suitable for production of variety of crops.
The retired official in the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources in the old Ondo State, said that if at all fertiliser was required for cultivation, farmers in the region should use organic fertilisers.
According to him, apart from being more affordable, orgainic fertiliser is also readily available and will save farmers the challenges associated with delay in accessing inorganic fertiliser.
``The soil fertility and climatic condition in Southern Nigeria is very suitable for the production of wide varieties of crop without the use of fertiliser.
``However, farmers who prefer using fertiliser for high yields are advised to embrace organic fertiliser because it saves cost and it is always available unlike inorganic fertiliser.
``Organic fertiliser decreases the danger of over application of fertilisation because the nutrients are released slowly thus making nutrients available for a longer period in the soil,’’ Adamolekun said.
He urged farmers to take the advantage of the increasing cattle grazing in the southern part of the country by making use of their faeces as manure.
Adamolekun further called on Local Government Councils to take a cue from the Federal Government and prioritise promotion of agriculture through huge budgetary allocation to the sector.
According to him, a huge budgetary allocation to agriculture by all tiers of government in the country will enhance economic growth.
The former agriculture extension worker and a farmer urged governments at levels to stop paying lip service to agricultural development but to invest critically into the sector.
``Local government councils at the grassroots in particular have greater advantage in terms developing agriculture for the purpose of improving their Internally Generated Revenue,’’ Adamolekun said.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tomato disease outbreak: Institute appeals for research funding

The National Horticultural Research Institute, Ibadan, has appealed for funding to carry out research and create awareness on the tuta absoluta pest on tomatoes. The Institute’s Head of Vegetable Programme, Dr Olagorite Adetula, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Friday that there was an urgent need to tackle the problem to save the economy. Adetula said the institute needed money to do surveillance survey of the pest/damage, ascertain the impact of the damage and proffer solution for eradicating the pest. She appealed to the Federal Government to help the institute get pheromones to lure and trap the pests and distribute to farmers. ``Spraying insecticides is not the best, the pest has high production rate, some of them can escape while spraying it and they will be resistant to the insecticide thereby causing us more cost. ``The pheromones can be used for six to eight weeks before changing it, it is very effective, the pest has short life cycle, wit
Read more

10,000 women farmers to be engaged in ECOWAS rice project – official

Image
 Mr Richard Olafare, the President, Seed Entrepreneurs Association of Nigeria (SEEDAN) says 10,000 women will be engaged in the recently inaugurated Rice Seed Up-Scaling Project. This is contained in a presentation on the project made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday. Olafare said 8,000 youths would also be engaged in the scaling project. According to him, the number of women and youths represented 50 per cent and 40 per cent respectively of the 20,000 farmers that will participate in the project. NAN reports that the project is an initiative of the West Africa Seed Programme (WASP) in support of the ECOWAS Rice Offensive Programme that was inaugurated in 2014. Among other objectives, it is targeting the production of 60,000 metric tonnes of paddy rice for Nigeria by December 2017, using 1,200 certified seeds. The project is being implemented by SEEDAN in collaboration with the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Re
Read more

NEGPRO project can create more jobs with inclusion of meat production— Badmus

•Tuns Farm leads food safety, quality system audit The Chairman , Tuns Farms Nigeria, Asiwaju Olatunde Badmus, has disclosed that the proposed one million jobs expected to be created through the National Egg Production Scheme (NEGPRO) can be doubled if extended to meat production. He made this known when a team from the office of the Vice President, Federal Ministries of Agriculture, Health and Education at the company’s headquarters in Osogbo, the Osun state capital recently. Olatunde Badmus, while sharing the company’s experience on chicken inclusion in the Osun state’s school meal program which the company has been handling since the introduction of the school feeding program four years ago, said they can achieve so much more in terms of job creation through meat production “As we speak, six state governors among who are Kebbi and Borno, have signalled their government’s preparedness to look into this and have invited TUNS farm to their states to discuss modalities for
Read more