Local farmers in Kwara state have been enjoined to embrace use of organic fertilizer on their farms to ensure production of healthy agricultural produce and consumption.
Speaking at a workshop organised by an agricultural based NGO, Willow Empowerment for Grass roots Development Initiatives, in Ilorin on Tuesday (January 10, 2018) an agric expert and practitioner, Mrs. Olubunmi Adekanye, disclosed that 70 per cent of agricultural food planted with chemical fertilizer contained harmful chemical.
Adekanye, who said that acidic chemical components in fertilizer such as herbicides, fungicide, and KPK, among others, used in planting, would affect nutritional value of agricultural produce, added that the consequences had been high toxin in human body system.
The agric expert said that cancer survives in acidic environment, pointing out that high toxin in human body could cause breast cancer, other forms of cancer and shorten human life span.
“Farmers are encouraged to use organic fertilizer to plant crop and feed animal. It’s called future fertilizer. It contains micro and macro elements, including nitrogen, sulphur, iron, copper, zinc that will make plant grow well and reduce chemical in soil and improve soil nutrients”, she said.
Also speaking, the coordinator of the NGO, Engineer Dare William, said that the workshop, which had local farmers in attendance, was meant to reposition them and the nation’s economy generally.
William, who said that the organization would give grant to farmers, added that it was concerned on how grant registered members could invest their grant effectively.
” It has always been our sleeping and waking thoughts to ensure that poverty rate is reduced to the barest minimum in Nigeria by 2030. This is perfectly in line with the vision of the World Bank for Africa. Let me, however; hasten to tell you that you must look beyond gaining and profiting from this workshop. To impact into your members what you will learn here.
Besides, you must be ready to draw a plan of action on how to implement all the lessons you will learn”, he said.
