By Chukwuka Ugokwe:
As part of its efforts to encourage farmers to migrate to regenerative agriculture, Anambra State Government is to establish demonstration farms across the 21 Local Government Areas.
The State Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Foster Ihejiofor, dropped this hint while speaking during a training session for key officers of the Ministry at its Conference Hall.
While highlighting benefits derivable from the agricultural policy, he added that the farming project would be stepped down to all the 179 communities in the state.
Presenting a paper on “Techniques in Compost and Compost Making”, a Biological Conservative, Prof. Cordelia Ebenebe said time has come for a shift from Chemical agriculture to Regenerative agriculture.
“There is a difference between regenerative agriculture commonly called organic. While organic is consumer health driven because of chemical residue in it that brings about ill health, regenerative agriculture is ecosystem driven.
“It is about biological processes that ensure that plants are resistant to diseases so we do not need pesticides and then the micro organisms in the soil together with the compost manure.’’
She explained that excessive use of chemical fertilizers had led to several issues including serious soil degradation, nitrogen leaching, soil compaction, reduction in soil organic matter and loss of carbon.
To achieve the desired effect, she said an estimated production target of 40 tons of compost heaps every month would be needed in each of the six agricultural zones to drive the policy.
“The major thing government wants to achieve is kind of regaining the health of the people. We begin to realize that our food is either the medicine or health to us.
“So that we get food that is devoid of chemicals that will expose us to health risk, that Anambra people will eat good food, make good processes that will give us health instead of poison,’’ Prof. Ebenebe said. (MOI)
