ADVERTISEMENT
  • The Membership Club
  • #EndSARS Dashboard
  • PT Hausa
  • About Us
  • Advert Rates
  • Careers
  • Contact Us
Monday, May 23, 2022
Premium Times Nigeria
  • Home
  • Gender
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • COVID-19
    • News Reports
    • Special Reports and Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Special Reports/Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • #EndSARS Dashboard
    • Parliament Watch
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
  • #PandoraPapers
  • AUN-PT Data Hub
  • Home
  • Gender
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Opinion
  • Health
    • COVID-19
    • News Reports
    • Special Reports and Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Special Reports/Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Features and Interviews
    • Multimedia
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • Projects
    • #EndSARS Dashboard
    • Parliament Watch
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • AGAHRIN
  • #PandoraPapers
  • AUN-PT Data Hub
Premium Times Nigeria
BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad BUA Group Ad
ADVERTISEMENT
Marigolds plant

Marigolds plant

How Abuja farmers use organic pesticides, disease control to reduce climate change effects

To prevent infections on newly propagated plants, one farmer rubs fluids from aloe vera plants on the exposed surface of the grafted plant.

byAbdulkareem Mojeed
November 28, 2021
5 min read

Climate change has become a significant threat to Nigeria’s food security amidst worsening insecurity and food inflation.

To deal with this problem, some farmers in rural Abuja communities and across the different regions of the country have adopted sustainable agricultural practices, commonly called smart agriculture, in an effort to mitigate the devastating impacts of climate change on food production, boost biodiversity and as well restore degraded lands.

“Because we understand the implication of pesticides usage on crops, and the environment, we only make use of organic fertiliser which are mostly extracts from plants here to control pests and diseases,” Samuel Kwasari, an agroforestry farm manager at Kwali area council in Abuja, told PREMIUM TIMES.

Samuel Kwasari
Samuel Kwasari

He said when he started farming at his current farm, the soil was sandy, brownish and the land was degraded. Because they make use of organic fertilizer, there are earthworm mounds around, indicating the presence of essential nutrients for plants which was lacking before.

“Turn your back and see the soil by the road, totally brown. That was how it was when we came here, but see it today, it is totally different,” the farmer said.

Worm castings are explained as small mounds or bumps on the lawn that are basically worm excrement—but highly nutritious excrement. These excretions are nutrient-packed remains of digested plant matter and soil that have passed through the worms—a material that is extremely beneficial to the lawn.

Earthworm’s presence due to organic usage of manure also helps in breaking down thatch, increasing decomposition, and creating usable nitrogen in the soil.

To prevent infections on newly propagated plants, Mr Kwasari said he rubs fluids from aloe vera plants on the exposed surface of the grafted plant in order to reduce bacterial load on the crops.

“This practice has helped improve the soil microbial organisms, soil texture, nutrients and water retention capacity, as well as plant vigor to sequester carbon dioxide conveniently,” the farmer said.

How does this work?

Mr Kwasari explained that apart from growing crops that repel pests and diseases from crops planted, he said they also make use of extracts from neem plants (commonly called dongoyaro tree), eucalyptus, cow dung and urine combinations to treat infected plants.

“Because we don’t apply fertilizer, we make use of cow urine, cow dung, soil, pigeon pea or any other pea with high protein. What we do is that we take 200 liters of water, 10 liters of cow urine, a kilogram or 2kg of fresh cow dung, 1kg of powdery pigeon pea and a handful of soil, then mix them together,” he said.

The farmer said the idea behind adding a handful of soil is to multiply the available microorganisms.

For instance, he said, “Let’s assume as I pick up a handful of soil there are 10 microbes in it. After fermenting the concoction, there will be about 2000 microbes in the 200 litres of mixture. Then we just apply it on the farm then it keeps multiplying the microbes.”

One of the critical needs of plants is that the microbes are there, the soil is living. It needs air just like humans and the trees. It is a natural thing that if there’s a tree growing on a soil that air will get there. As trees take up the carbon dioxide, it is only through the soil that they can sequester it.

Peter Ikwu
Peter Ikwu

Peter Ikwu, another agroforestry farmer, said he grows marigold plants alongside his vegetables in order to prevent pests from invading his crops, rather than using toxic chemical sprays on his farm.

Marigolds intercropped with vegetables
Marigolds intercropped with vegetables

Marigolds are a favorite, no-fuss annual plant that can bring the color of sunshine to the garden. Because it is brightly coloured, it easily attracts insects to itself including beneficial insects like butterflies, bees, ladybugs, among others which helps in pollinating flowering plants on the farm.

Marigold seeds germinate quickly, within just a few days, and blooms within eight weeks. This quick sense of satisfaction makes them a great first-time gardening project and a great companion in vegetable gardens which can help protect veggies from predators and pests.

“With this system of farming we don’t need to depend on chemicals like our parents does…” Mr Ikwu said.

According to the farmers, food crops are grown strategically alongside trees and the insect repellant plants in order to create mutual benefits for both crops and the environment.

For instance, because leguminous crops such as beans, groundnut and even Gliricidia trees are known to be good fixers of atmospheric nitrogen into the soil, of which nitrogen is an essential nutrient required by plants to thrive and blossom.

These legumes are seen to be inter-cropped with maize, sorghum among other crops so as to boost yields without further fertiliser applications, while pests repellent plants (marigolds) are evenly spread along the rows where crops are planted.

Organic pesticides and fertiliser formulations

Mustapha Yakubu, who heads the nursery unit of the Be the Help Foundation agroforestry farm, explained that a smallholder farmer can easily prepare their organic pesticides and fertiliser with leaves from neem plant, pepper, cow urine, cow dung, pigeon pea, sand and water.

Mustapha Yakubu
Mustapha Yakubu

He said a farmer can prepare organic pesticides by blending the leaves of neem plants alongside pepper, cow urine and water, then allow the mixture to ferment for three days before sprinkling it on the farm.

Advertisements



Mr Yakubu said for the preparation of the organic manure, a farmer should mix 5kg each of ripe banana, pigeon pea, fresh cow dung, then top it with 10 liters of cow urine, a handful of soil from the farm and water.

“After mixing all of this in a drum, the mixture should be stirred both clockwise and anti clockwise for 20 times then allowed to ferment for 23 days before use on the farm,” he said.

Key significance and challenges

Zilolo Emasealu, an Agronomist with the Nigeria Farmers Group and Cooperative Society(NFGCS), said organic farming is indeed a healthy way of growing edible crops and vegetables but that Nigeria does not have a strong organic market yet for farmers to explore.

Zilolo Emasealu
Zilolo Emasealu

He said for a farmer to successfully run an organic farm, then the farmer needs to prevent run-offs from other farms from passing through, thus there is a need for a bigger buffer zone.

“Usually, running an organic farm on a large scale is more tedious and expensive,” the agronomist said.

Tosin Olonijolu
Tosin Olonijolu

Tosin Olonijolu, farm manager and principal agric officer at the Lower Niger river Basin Development Authority’s integrated farm, said the usage of extracts from neem and eucalyptus trees, alongside livestock wastes to combat pests and diseases on farmlands can be traced to India and even Brazil.

He said organic systems of farming helps to promote healthy food production with available materials within the farm environment.

Pesticides and climate change

While agricultural pesticides usage has been linked to be major drivers of climate change effects, some farmers across the world have switched to taking the opportunity to embrace the principles of regenerative agriculture in order to reduce pesticide use, improve soil health, and increase the capacity of soil to retain water and sequester carbon.

According to the United Nations-backed Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), nutrient run-off from farms laced with synthetic fertilizer has adversely affected land ecosystems.

“Along with flood, drought and fire, add pests to the list of anticipated impacts of climate change. With a longer growing season and a warmer climate, weeds and insect pests will proliferate, most likely leading to more pesticide use – which is itself responsible for harmful emissions that further exacerbate climate change,” said a report by the California for Pesticides Reform (CPR) said.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Environment Programme said a recent study from a United Kingdom-based charity soil association and advocate of organic farming, has shown that organic farming methods are not the only example of sustainable nutrient management, noting that agroecological approaches, including conservation, low-input, and minimum tillage agriculture, are all recognized as “nature-positive” and regenerative practices.

It said an enormous share of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions result directly or indirectly from agricultural production and the subsequent processing, storage, transport and disposal of food.

This story was produced under the 2021 Solution Journalism Africa fellowship of the Solution Journalism Network.

  • WhatsApp
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • Telegram
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pocket

CITIZEN-FM AD


Support PREMIUM TIMES' journalism of integrity and credibility

Good journalism costs a lot of money. Yet only good journalism can ensure the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy, and a transparent government.

For continued free access to the best investigative journalism in the country we ask you to consider making a modest support to this noble endeavour.

By contributing to PREMIUM TIMES, you are helping to sustain a journalism of relevance and ensuring it remains free and available to all.

Donate


TEXT AD: Why women cheat: what every Nigerian man should know







PT Mag Campaign AD

Previous Post

VIDEOS: Watch P-Square’s first joint performance after reunion

Next Post

TRIBUTE: Bayo Oduneye: The “Tramp” who made good

Abdulkareem Mojeed

Abdulkareem Mojeed

More News

Farmers stranded at the Udebo Bush Market

In Benue, N63 million farm road funded twice by federal govt remains abandoned

May 11, 2022
It’s not that people in poorer countries want to eat unhealthily - but cost is a huge factor. [Photo: The Conversation - Aleksandar Todorovic]

Global food prices slightly down in April

May 6, 2022
Oil palm plantation at NIFOR

As Indonesia bans palm oil exports, Nigeria unable to seize lucrative opportunity

April 27, 2022
Artisanal mining at Biggie's siteat Arimoro, Ilesha site. Credit: Taiwo Adebayo/PT.

SPECIAL REPORT: Osun in the mud as mining greed intensifies

April 24, 2022
Signpost showing entrance to Gaate community

Inside Nassarawa community where crop farmers, herders coexist

March 11, 2022
Gold mining sites in south-eastern Senegal

Going for gold leaves Senegal’s artisanal mining communities poorer

February 23, 2022
Next Post
Bayo Oduneye [Photo Credit: Ever Loved]

TRIBUTE: Bayo Oduneye: The “Tramp” who made good

Ayo Akerele asks where the types of the pastors of the 80s now are.

Becoming globally relevant (2), By Ayo Akerele

Leave Comment

Search

AUN-PT Ad





Transport-Technology


Stanbic Ad


Access Bank Ad





Glo Ad


Subscribe to News via Email

Enter your email address and receive notifications of news by email.

Join 1,844,515 other subscribers.

Advertisement






netherland biz school Advert



Zenith Advert

ADVERTISEMENT

Our Digital Network

  • PT Hausa
  • Election Centre
  • Human Trafficking Investigation
  • Centre for Investigative Journalism
  • National Conference
  • Press Attack Tracker
  • PT Academy
  • Dubawa
  • LeaksNG
  • Campus Reporter

Resources

  • Oil & Gas Facts
  • List of Universities in Nigeria
  • LIST: Federal Unity Colleges in Nigeria
  • NYSC Orientation Camps in Nigeria
  • Nigeria’s Federal/States’ Budgets since 2005
  • Malabu Scandal Thread
  • World Cup 2018
  • Panama Papers Game
  • Our Digital Network
  • About Us
  • Resources
  • Projects
  • Data & Infographics
  • DONATE

All content is Copyrighted © 2020 The Premium Times, Nigeria

No Result
View All Result
  • #PandoraPapers
  • Gender
  • News
    • Headline Stories
    • Top News
    • More News
    • Foreign
  • Investigations
  • Business
    • News Reports
    • Financial Inclusion
    • Analysis and Data
    • Business Specials
    • Opinion
    • Oil/Gas Reports
      • FAAC Reports
      • Revenue
  • Health
    • COVID-19
    • News Reports
    • Investigations
    • Data and Infographics
    • Health Specials
    • Features
    • Events
    • Primary Health Tracker
  • Agriculture
    • News Report
    • Research & Innovation
    • Data & Infographics
    • Special Reports/Investigations
    • Investigations
    • Interviews
    • Multimedia
  • Arts/Life
    • Arts/Books
    • Kannywood
    • Lifestyle
    • Music
    • Nollywood
    • Travel
  • Sports
    • Football
    • More Sports News
    • Sports Features
  • #EndSARS Dashboard
  • Projects
    • Panama Papers
    • Paradise Papers
    • Parliament Watch
    • AGAHRIN
  • AUN-PT Data Hub
  • Opinion
  • The Membership Club
  • Dubawa
  • DONATE

All content is Copyrighted © 2020 The Premium Times, Nigeria

Our website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.