Environmental protection: Nigerian farmers returning to organic farming
//Sola Ojo, Kaduna Northwest Nigeria//
As campaign on environmental protection heightens across the globe, Nigerian farmers especially the young ones from Northern part of the country seem to be swinging to that direction too as they now applying organic manure in their farm by a way of collecting waste from homes and refuse dump sites.
One of them is 20-year-old Rabiu Musa and Abdulrahman Umar, 19 are all indigenes of Katsina state but moved to Kaduna, Northwestern part of the country in search of waste materials to use as organic manure on their farms.
They claimed that waste materials if well applied on farms will improve the soil fertility which increases crops production and healthier farm produce unlike inorganic that kills soil nutrients within short time.
Rabiu Musa and Abdulrahman said they came all the way from Katsina to Kaduna to collect waste materials dumped at Abakwa refuse dump site, a suburbs of Kaduna metropolis.
“We use the refuse collected as organic manure on our boss farms. Many farmers are not aware of its importance as you can see we came all the way from Katsina state to Kaduna just to collect refuse dumped ,” Rabiu said.
Katsina state is four hours drive by road to Kaduna.
Developmental reporters met them at the refuse dump site where they were sighted digging and loading the refuse into local sacks waiting to be transported.
They explained that a vehicle will transport the waste materials to a farm in Katsina.
Abdulrahaman pointed out that the refuse has since replaced fertilizer because it work better on soil than the modern fertilizer.
“Those who used it know that it work better on soil than modern fertilizer. Youths can also take the advantage by collecting waste materials and sell to farmers to earn a living , ” he advised.
However, it is important to add that, the global farmers are discouraging application of inorganic fertilizer like NPK due to its aftermath consequences both on the soil, human and ecological system. We may be solving a lot of problem associated with chemically processed food in the world today and at the same time, protecting the environment for the sake of coming generations.