From Blessing Douglas, Port Harcourt
A non-governmental organisation, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), has called on farmers in the country to embrace the use of organic fertilisers and organic pesticides in their farming activities to improve yield and provide healthy foods for the citizenry.
HOMEF advised farmers to practice agro-ecology as against reliance on harmful chemicals for their planting which has links to many of the diseases prevalent in the society.
The NGO also called on the government to completely ban the importation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) into the country because of its environmental and economic implications.
Speaking at a training for farmers in K-Dere community in Gokana local council of Rivers State, Programmes Director of HOMEF, Joyce Brown said the training for farmers has become necessary because the international market is now rejecting most Nigerian farm produce because of excessive use of pesticides.
She said the use of organic fertilisers and organic pesticides and agro-forestry would help to produce healthy foods and combat climate change in the country.
“We did this training because we are trying to teach our farmers on how to use this organic fertilisers as against using inorganic pesticides and fertilisers which have serious implications for human and environmental health and even our economy because many of our products are being rejected in the international market due to excessive use of pesticides.
“Agro-ecology and the use of organic agriculture actually focus on improving soil health and you know when we have healthy soil, we would be able to have better productivity and we would have healthy food because alot of sicknesses today are linked to the food that we consume in addition to environmental pollution,” she said.
Brown explain that agro-ecology also helps to mitigate the impact of climate change because it does not depend on fossil fuels and it also helps farms to be resilient to climate change, whereas industrial agriculture depends on fossil fuels, the production of those inorganic fertilisers releases alot of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Calling for ban on GMOs, the Programmes Director of HOMEF said farmers don’t need it as a lot of them do not know the implication on the health of their environment.
“Our message to the government is to ban GMOs because from interaction with farmers from across the country, farmers keep telling us that they do not need GMOs, what they need is support in terms of extension services, show them how to do agriculture in a way that works with their local environment, with their agro-ecology and for government to support by investing in agro-ecology and help our farmers to do much more working inline with nature.”
On his part, Erabanabari Kobah, Director, Citizens Resource Services, a partner organisation said the soil in the area has suffered from several years of degradation which has led to dwindling crop yields, so there was need for application of natural fertilisers for better yield.
“Many years of oil exploration has devastated our environment to the point that farm produce is dwindling and farm income is also dwindling, the people continue to toil in their farms with little from it.
“So we think that it’s important if they are sensitised on some measures they can adopt towards improving their crop yields since they may not have money to buy pesticides that would also harm the environment”.
He called on the government at all levels to partner with NGOs like HOMEF to expand the training and also adopt initiatives that will be beneficial to farmers through agro-ecology.
A facilitator, Chukwu Agozirim Ifoegbu of Be The Help Foundation, who took the farmers on the training session said use of agro-ecology and agro-forestry helps to increase soil nutrients through efficiency of water and carbon retention, urging them to avoid burning their farms as the farm remnants after harvest contributes to soil nutrients and crop yields.
A beneficiary, Mrs Silvian Paanwi expressed gratitude to HOMEF for the training and urged government to partner the NGO and others to expand the knowledge to other women from the localities for better agricultural production.
