s the call for the adoption of o rganic farming by mzny agriculture experts inlensifie5 in the _ belief Iha t the farm ing would milke the coun· try 10 be food su fficient, an ilgriculture expert in soil science and a teacher in one of the country's colleges of agriculiufl', has also th rown her weight behind the call for the ado ption of organic farming. According. to Dr Folu ke Ol uwaloyinbo, organic fanning is actua lly good <'nd it better altemative to conventional farming, as iI wo uld solve Ihe p roblem o f sole depend ence 0 " eve r-scarce ino rga n ic fertil isers, which is not ah \" ,ys wi th i" the reach of fanners in rural areas. Speaking w ith Tribun e Agriculture in her ofl'i ce. Dr Olu'Natoyi nbo, who is the Provost. Federal College of Agriculture (FCA ), whidl is situated inside the premises of the Inst itut e of Agricultural Research and Tr.,ining (lAR&T). Moor Plan tation, Ap.,ta, lbadan, Dyo State, e:ocplained thai there was nothi"g absolutely new about org2nic fanning. because it had been pr"cti.sed by our grandfathers. Accord ing to the soi l scientist, Hembradng organic farming is like going back 10 nature and our people must accept it because ils adva ntages are enonnous. Eve" in human medicine, preventi ve medicine is what experts are layi ng emphasis on basiCClII}' because it is cheaper and more effecti ve. It ;s also better to use nal u ul produ cts to improve the soil properties like boos ting its Cations EKcim nge Capacity (CEC). Organic ferlili ser wou ld also help to reclaim alread y bOld or about to become i" fe rlile soil instead of o\·erload ing it with che mica ls w hich may cause more nann to the soil. Honestly. organic fa rming is good. and I'm in (ull su pport of it, no mailer what some people may be saying aboul it," she staled . S ~aki"g furth er, the don said all over the world
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I -Dr (Mrs) Provost, Federal College of Agriculture, Ibadan toda y, people are trying as much as possible 10 run away from any product, be It medical o r agncu ltUre, that would give them health p roblems because of w h at IS called reSIdu al effects of ch emicals or
drugs. This is also the casE' w ith o rgan ic farm ing because the re is no problem o f residu,,' eHeds from a n y product n urt ured o r p lanted wi th o rs"nic fertiliser. In fact, the preach ing o f org.mic farming to our farmers should be inlensifi ('d u po n, bul to ou r aged p ractising farm e r!';, il is like reminding them o f what they a lread know bt'forc. "Therefore, whal we need 10 dt'. I'; Ill'!.! 10 explain 10 them the advan tages and modern ways of doi ng it. But we n~ to lecture our young farmers \'erv well because m"oy of them are a~ 1\ut u5ed to it:· she advised . TIle FCA provost further s~ , , ~ whe" l1ur gmndfi\' thers we re practising organic I :rming and eelling the products, there were less d is' "~ comp.,rcd to modem da ys where we' re now h ,1 I1g a load of residu.,l chemicals in i'1gricultm.,1 pro..l1 ' 1'1 5 a l esU It of ina'S-s.1rH use of chemicals, thll:'l affCl:ting our health." Moreover, she tasked adv oc~t~ of organic f"rming 10 unders ti"lnd th..1t its adoption b} f<l rmers would be it gradu.,l process, stressing thi'll the\' "h r;.. uld not be d iscouraged if they experienced slow <ldt: F'tiull o r resislance from certain quarters bt!cause it was the h"bit of some Nigerians to resist new clli"1nges. Dr. O luwaloy inbo also said ix.'Oluse of population explosion in the country, migh t slill have to be used with ch em ical fertilisers to complemen t inorga nic fertilisers. However, she posited tha t, "above illl, o rgan ic fertiliser is in a class of its own in terms of benefit to Cf OPS, soil and human beings, unlike chemic" ls and inorganic (ertilisers. "The only dis."ldvantage is that we need a large quantily of organic fertiliser to meetlhe demtlnd of our (armers. But the fact slill remains that it should be embra~ as it will help the country to ach ieve the objectivc of attaining food security in time," she concluded.
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per, tomiltols.onion and o ther vegetables continue to skyrocket in markets in different p a rts of Ihe counlry, many vegetable d ea le rs in terviewed by
Tribune
Agriculture
on the way out o f this imbriglo in many parts of the rotmtI)' insish!d. that then!is littJeor luiting they can do to bring down the prices of these food items. saying Ulal only the farmers thatbring tremtothemarkets from the North should be persu.ld~ to ~ thoil . 1n .mlIlteJ\"lew Wllh the Tn"bune AgricuJlure at Bodija market, lbadan. last week. MUSlapha Bunuwa. explained that the crisis n"king some slares in the North was one of the factors ___ .
items. Acmrding to Mustapha. instability in some parts of the Northen sl"tes has aIfectcd the serurity of Ih15 and properties. as weU 85 agrio.dtura1 activities in sud! states. He said many ~ farmers now live in fear in the affected. states and these statcsarethecatdunentareas of U'e5e \-q;etables. Many fanners couldn' t visit their farms in order to avoid becoming victims of these dangerous religious sed called Bok~ ~ who are on daily basiS a ttacking people by throwi ng bombs
a serious impact on agricultural activities in that regionoftherounlIy.
Anothervegetablefarmer who spoke with Tribune A&rkuIrure at Sasa market in Ibadan, said top-roof prices of these vegeatbles may remain like that for some ti me due to certai n reasons.
Accordng to Shehu Ahmed, an indigene of Borno Stale, "high tmn.sportaticn fee to get the vegetables from the North 10 theSouth is one major factor. Another factor highlighted bySlehuwasthernoneyhe aIIeged that poIic:emetolten collect from them on their ~ way to the markets. The farmer further He also attributed high ,L _ explained U1iIt apart (rom pn'ces of tomaloes, c'gh IU level of insecurity in onion and vegetables f the nrlh. tl mru:lY...E.artso L N~ to lCinsu£fident.numberoi
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Th~nder- storm -kilfs 26 cowsin Isey" " d'
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o fewer 1I1"n 26
n causmg cosmiC lSOrdcr and killing not Icss than """ 26 cows instantly. It ,w.as aIsogalllCred ~lOlt U\Ckil hngor~cows lJU~1 h~ve been I~ conn~~tlo" WIth t~~~tcrtSlsbe:" hveenu-.: nncrsand fulam herdsmen. whose rows h..1d ~ grazmg many,rarms III the area, destroYUlg Ihe
were re. . portedJy to have beenkilledb),tfnmderfol1owi"8 heary downpour recentl y in lseyin area of OyoState. Tribune Agrlcullure gathered that the cows were gn:ting (rom 1f"1po in IIcsiwaju I...ocal Government Area to- aupsol the fanners.. wards I-..in town when TIlis development ~J ed F the min suddmly started prompt h some u1ani ld folJoo...'I!d. by tI nd peop)e 10 uniedly run to al 10 er C01VS
~ paIare
in
311seyin over the modent. but the monarch wasnotanound to douse the tension. It Wils furthe r leaml that Sango (god of thunder) people had been contacted and began certain samOaal rites on the killed cows. Efforts 10 get the berdsman of the cows proved abo..' .... ,,,. h, ";d '0 'u ......, ..... have gone into hiding wunting the losses.
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Dealers Association (WAlDA) said we have farmers here ' who can produretheiefooditcms.but
also said f.nlTlers inlheNorth are getting Ihe needed supports and encourage-
wearenot~tIen.
Even if they produce then-\, our people would stiOprefe" tobuy thosevegetablesfrom the north so the ~t is not there.
especially in the area of agriwlture inputs unlike the munh!rpartsintheSouthHe howeve.r, called on our govemmentlo giw: needed support 10 our farmers..
S T l IE price of fresh to mat oes and other vegetablesh.1Veskyrocketed by aboul 50 per cent i" Mub~ Adamawa Sta te, in th~ past fou r I!(!k.s w A ~a rket s urve conducted b ' the ~ell's Agetl<)' of }..,geri~ (NAN) . M II b"I , how ' ed"1Iii " he III h"k . ' . __ ..I I e III pnce was cau......... b ", y scara y The s u ' vey Is e
potato hi"ls jumped to N800 as against NJOO. Tri"lders lit the market attributed the hike in the price of 10mal()('Sand other peris h"bles 10 reduced supply, Mali"lm lsa Am,'alu, " tomato dealer, said tha t the lack o f modem preserva..c had con· lion t~rmor{lgies I scarcity. tributed to 1"lC "We .u e nol receiving s up ply (ronlthe farm at
There IS also an Increase k" "h d . trans rtati . f coo Ing wI I ry toma· tn So po on ~ to toes due 10 tI"lC price hike. the F~::;: ~~mmgent In vestigatio.n CO"to find solution to it "' he ducted at Mubl marke t, 1amen12d ' showed tlla! a smaU meaBut a Alhap.Ana6 sure o( tomatoes CUlTC"tly Olay'nka AJiliun d d ' sells for N450 as agai nst I II e an the fonner price of Nl 50. ~~ :~:';: I Simitllrly, o"ions sells ~.... . for N700 as "gainst its blamed the farmers m the ~ ( N250 er . southern states for the 0r::: pn~ 0 . f continuous ioc:reaSe in sma measure 0 -'-ofthr!ge.---..t......... pepper sells (or N600 as 1""'''''''''''' , t~ ' .g.",_" ,"" (omoe' pn"- o( A!h"aJi AkinDiade the .- ~ ,...... , t...... N200. while the price of
pncc. "We need modem techTUqUes to preserve tomatoes and ensure its availabili ty th rough o ut the year," AUWillu 5<1id . Usman 0"}).1, a resident o ( tile town, said the hike in price o f pe rishables constituted" drain in his pocket. I "a m no w usi ng dry and lin toma to which is , c"pe' .nd . ((o' d.bl,," Ul . • he said.
northasaresullofirY;erurity. Although he was confident and proud to say thai 90 per cent of the vegetables in the markets were broughl in from the NortI\ heac:xused £anners in the southern states of not
complementingtheelfortsof their counterparts in the North to produce enough
vegetables.. A onion farmer from Kebbi State, Kabiru Alkali, lold Tribune Agriculture that. "people should not blame pepper and tomato ~lJers f~r the inc,essant Increase In the pncC5 of these vegetables because whalev~r they bought from us IS what they sell to consumers. There is a boblem in the North use of Bako Harama and this is having
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,, ' Adama tomato, pepper pnCES mcrease m wa
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