Organic agriculture: need for clear policy to check challenges says former Jigawa Military administrator

The former Military Administrator in Jigawa state, Col. Abubakar Malayia has said that government need to provide a very clear policy for the practice of organic agricultural practice to reduce challenges that practitioners faced towards achieving more potent food security in the country. Read the rest of his excerpts below. 

Can you introduce yourself?

It is indeed a pleasure meeting you, my name is Colonel Abubakar Zakaria Malayia, retired, I was in the Nigerian Army until 1999 as the former Military Administrator of Jigawa State. Since then I have been engaged into some business ventures, mostly to do with industrial raw minerals that is processed into industrial applications for  raw materials needed in the manufacturing  industry, of course we also produce organic fertilizers and agric life. So for the past fifteen year in our company, what we have been doing is organic manuals for agricultural inputs and we are based in Kano.

Can you share with us some of your experiences from angle of both organic and conventional seeds inputs?

Well, a lot of the experiences are more of the challenges, as you will agree with me that ecological organic agriculture is a new phenomenon in the annals of Nigerian farming calendar, and of course, organic agriculture requires a quite number of knowledge visa -vis inputs utilization and sourcing of raw materials for organic agriculture. One thing I know is that it is quite challenging because there is no clear cut policy for it by the Government thereby posing a serious challenge to practicing. Also most of the practitioners  are still very use to the convention system  as you will agree with me that the conventional agriculture is still finding its well footing in the country as a result of policy inconsistency cum other challenges like access to fund, insufficent knowledge of practices as  the farming practitioners are  still used to traditional farming. The basic practitioners are farmers –up to 80% as against 20% of the other stakeholders. Unfortunately many of them do not have access to fund to sustain their farms in a more profitable ways. Extension challenges are also very worrisome. But I want to believe that with the vast potentials of the country in agriculture, there is hope that we will overcome inconsistency policies challenges and summersault.

What is your take on Ecological Organic Agriculture (EOA) initiative in Nigeria?

Well I think like today’s meeting which was being hosted by the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) is very good initiative. This is the first time you find private practitioners and bodies like Association of Organic Agriculture Practitioners of Nigeria (NOAN) and Organic Farmers’ Producers, Suppliers Association of Nigeria (OFPSAN) of which I am a member to both organizations interfacing. Of course there are other stakeholders from the public sector. The purpose of the gathering is towards structuring organic agriculture programme in the country with a road map. So we have a lot of private sector associations that should be at the vanguard of organizing this road map under one body with continuous cross fertilizing ideas and initiating policies and ideas that will be potent to developing the practice of organic agriculture in the country.

In the face of the growing population, can organic farming be growing massive food like conventional practice?

Well like I said earlier on, it is all about knowledge and awareness, and if you look at most of the stakeholders, especially the teeming farmers at the rural areas, most of the inputs they  are using to complement organic contents of the Nigeria abundant available soils ecology are inorganic fertilizers. So the apprehension of organic agriculture not being able to supply or capable of giving food security is not an issue to be afraid in Nigeria. What we are saying here is that we are already used to traditional farming, and there is need for awareness on the practice of organically produced animal and plant crops for healthy and safety food to generate more income in terms of premium.