Tribune Online – Breaking News in Nigeria Today
THE Vice-President of Association of Organic Agriculture Practitioners of Nigeria and also the Country Coordinator of Ecological Organic Agriculture Initiative in Nigeria, Olugbenga Adeoluwa, has said that the organic agriculture in Nigeria policy has been sent to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval and adoption.
Adeoluwa who disclosed this at the Annual General Meeting of the Association held on Monday in Abuja, said the policy will address issues like production, processing, inputs, marketing, quality control, certification of organic products in the country.
“Nigeria is on the good track as far as organic development is, because one of the indicators of a country doing well is having a policy in place that could support or that can support organic agriculture.
“And we are lucky in Nigeria, that although the country is young, as far as development of organic, not just globally but in Africa, but late year, December precisely, the dialogue of the stakeholders on organic policy in the country that was carried out by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in conjunction with ecological agriculture initiative in Nigeria, is moving. That’s a very good step.
“And as I’m aware, you know, that it’s almost at the federal executive council level, and then this will help a lot because doing organic agriculture in the country without good policy in place, it’s tantamount to doing nothing, because farmers need a right and appropriate policies to be able to do good business, one in terms of location of their farming activities, unlike the conventional farming that you can cite it anywhere, organic cannot be.
“One good example of this is organic apiculture, which is raising honey. Nigeria has a lot of opportunities; we have a lot of forest reserves, wildlife reserves, that can easily make Nigeria to be on the map of countries that are there when it comes to organic beekeeping.
“But you need the right policy to be put in place in order to guarantee these areas of land for organic production. The issue of quality control is also a matter of policy. Now we have a lot of influx of all manners of things being called Organic in Nigeria, whether in terms of food, products, even cosmetics, and the question is how organic are these? And that is a question.
“The organic policy when it is finally approved by the federal government would be able to make things work well, because that is the way to go in proper organic systems.
“And I’m glad that Nigeria is on the track of these policies. Quite a lot of aspects are addressed like production, processing, inputs, marketing, quality control, certification, including the appropriate stakeholders, to ensure that these work well, they are all captured in the policy”, he noted.
President of the association, Victor Idowu said organic agriculture relies mostly on what one can produce within the system, and does not depend more on external inputs.
He said it is a production system that every family, no matter how small their size is, can practise organic agriculture.
“If you have a small place at the back of your house, till the land, plant your vegetables, at least you will be sure of the quality of food you are eating. We all need to eat wholesome food like vegetables that have not been treated with synthetics which has effects on our health.
“Organic agriculture is not expensive, but it can be labour -at the beginning, but over time, by the time you keep applying organic fertiliser or animal manure to the soil, you are building the fertility of the soil and the gains are there for you over time”, he added.
Gideon Adeoye, the Foundation President of the Association said “when organic agriculture started advocacy has gone round the country just to level up with what is happening all over the world because we know the negative impact of chemicalised agriculture, we started the organic agriculture to actually let people know that we are eating poison.
“The association had a very important role to play which is to do advocacy, liaise with international organisations to make sure that we eat the right food, we live long, we conserve our environment and also improve the economy”.
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