The National President, Soil Science Society of Nigeria (SSSN), Prof. Victor Chude |
The
immediate past President of the Soil Science Society of Nigeria, and Registrar
of the Nigerian Institute of Soil Science, Prof. Victor Chude, has warned that
Nigeria risked not attaining food security as long as her citizenry continued to
treat the soil with levity and unless the mode of application of fertilizer to
crops was changed, the country would continue producing below quantity needed
for self-sufficiency.He said this at the maiden summit of the Agriculture Correspondents
Association of Nigeria (ACAN), held in Abuja, recently.
He
lamented that despite the abundance of land there had been low crop yields
across the country as a result of unregulated use of fertilizer and disregard
for the soil.
He
explained that fertilizers NPK 15: 15: 15 or NPK 20: 10: 10., for example, were
not meant for all soils, and that the present trend whereby the same type of fertilizer
was supplied to farmers across the country was counter-productive and should be
stopped, adding that every state should be supplied fertilizer that suits its
soil as shown on the Soil Science Society of Nigeria’s soil mapping.
The
professor used the opportunity to call on the relevant government institutions,
stakeholders to approach the society or conduct soil test and mapping before
fertilizers are given out to farmers.
He noted that farmers have remained in poverty
because for the past four decades, the yield of crops had not appreciated so
much because the soil had not been taken care of.
He
however assured that the present administration has been working assiduously to
correct the anomaly in this respect, which necessitated the establishment of
Nigerian Institute of Soil Science recently by the Federal Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development.
He
stressed the use of targeted fertilizers by farmers to guarantee increased
productivity, only after soil mapping must have been carried out.
Routine soil analysis is too costly for a poor farmer. Let the society with collaboration with government subsidize the cost of soil testing where an ordinary farmer can afford
ReplyDeleteRoutine analysis is nessery for phiso- chemical analysis and is not too cost as mention becouse is not up to 6000 naira, so when you compaire with the output you can justify thelat is not costly
ReplyDeleteHow many subsistence farmers can afford 6000k?
ReplyDeleteVery good article but what do you say about planting in water and on air
ReplyDelete