Group Trains 50 Rivers Farmers On Production of Bio-pesticides

A non-governmental organisation, NGO, called Health of Mother Earth Foundation, HOMEF, says it has trained 50 farmers in Rivers State, South-South, Nigeria on the production of bio-pesticides, organic pesticides, and bio-fertilisers.

The NGO said the initiative was essentially to end the hazardous effect of Genetically Modified Organisms, GMOs, on the environment.

The HOMEF Director of Programmes, Joyce Brown, disclosed this on Friday at a special training organised for farmers in Kegbara-Dere in the Gokana Local Government Area of the state.

Brown said that the programme was designed to teach farmers how to produce and use organic fertilisers against inorganic pesticides and fertilisers, which have serious implications for human and environmental health as well as the economy of the country.

She said that recent reports showed that some farm produce in the country were being rejected in the international market due to excessive use of pesticides.

“We taught farmers how to make use of the nim plant, nim oil, chilly pepper as well as garlic to make bio-pesticides.

“We also taught them how to make use of cow dung, cow urine, bananas, and healthy soil to make bio-fertilisers.

“We are trying to help our farmers produce food in optimum quality as well as getting enough food for our growing population because the common narrative is that Nigerians are hungry, so we need to produce a lot more food.”

Brown further said that agro-ecology and the use of organic agriculture focus on improving soil health, better productivity, and healthy food.

She expressed worry over the GMO hazardous pesticide and called on the federal government to ban its use and save farmers deadly diseases, especially those found in rural areas.

She said: “The government needs to take a stand against GMOs.

“We call for their ban because research has shown that more than 46 per cent of registered pesticides in the country are linked to cancers and other diseases.

“A lot of sicknesses today are linked to the food that we consume, in addition to environmental pollution.

“So, healthy food would reduce some of those public health issues that we are battling with today.

“From our interaction with farmers across the country, they keep telling us that they do not need GMOs.

“What they need is support, in terms of extension services.

“Show them how to do agriculture in a way that works with their local environment and agro-ecology.

“They called on government to support them by investing in agro-ecology and helping them to do more work in line with nature,” Brown said.

She said that the agro-ecology system helps to mitigate the impact of climate change because it does not depend on fossil fuels.

“It helps farms to be resilient to climate change, while industrial agriculture depends on fossil fuels, and releases a lot of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere,” she said.

The training facilitator and Farm Manager, Operations of Be The Help Foundation, Mr Chukwu Agozirim, said the programme was also to sensitise the farmers about agro-ecology system of farming, which is different from the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides.

One of the trained farmers, Mrs Silvian Paanwi, thanked HOMEF for the training and promised that she would deploy the knowledge acquired judiciously.

NAN/Shakirat Sadiq