Prof. Timothy Olabiyi, a crop and environmental expert, says the high use of chemicals by farmers is affecting the acceptability of Nigeria’s farm produce in the international market.
Olabiyi of the Department of Crop and Environmental Protection, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, said this on Tuesday during a one-day training workshop organised for farmers on “Organic Agriculture’’ in Ejigbo, Osun.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the training, which was organised by the Association of Organic Practitioners of Nigeria, has “Go Organic’’ as its theme.
Olabiyi said that organic farming was still the best agricultural methodology which farmers could adopt, bemoaning the excessive use of chemicals for farm produce by the country’s farmers.
According to him, Nigerian farmers are so used to chemical application to such an extent that some of them believe that they cannot farm without the application of chemicals.
“Before any developed country takes any farm produce from Nigeria, they will assess the chemical residue in it.
“And at a point, when the chemical in the farm produce exceeds the required standard, it will be rejected.
“We need to start producing high-quality produce, devoid of chemical or insects, and wood, among others.
“In as much as we continue to have all those things in our produce, the international communities will not accept our farm produce,’’ he added.
Olabiyi said that the chemical components in farm produce often did more harm than good, adding that farmers should, therefore, be encouraged to embrace organic agriculture.
He said that the use of synthetic fertilisers, pesticides, antibiotics and herbicides were not allowed in organic farming.
“The use of organic manure for farming makes farm produce to be fertile and less harmful to human body system.
“Before the advent of chemicals for farming after the Second World War, we only practised conventional agriculture in the country.
“We have been practising agriculture and feeding the nation without the use of chemicals but after the advent of chemicals, people turn out to be lazy.
“What we are supposed to use hands to do in the farm, we adopt alternatives way of doing it with the use of chemicals,’’ he said.
Olabiyi said that if Nigeria adopted the practice of organic agriculture, it would be able to feed its citizens. (NAN)