ABEOKUTA – Civil Society Groups including Women and Young farmers in Oyo State have called on the federal government to ban outrightly the importation of chemical products used in crop and livestock production in Nigeria.
They expressed concern over the worsening health conditions among young Nigerians mostly as a result of the intake of chemically fertilized food crops being consumed.
This call was made at the first phase of a training program on Compost and Bio-pesticide Production for Women and Young farmers in Ibadan, Oyo State.
The training programme themed: “Seeds of Change – Youth Mobilizing for Agroecology Transition and Sustainable Food Systems – Modelling Agroecology Farm”, was organized by the YARN and the Agroecology Fund.
It is poised to train and empower hundreds of young farmers and women smallholders in the agroecology value chain among others.
The training program, held at the Ijaye Town Hall in Akinyele local government, had in attendance youth and women farmers from different associations and organisations in the Southwestern state.
Speaking at the event, the Officer in charge of field project and land in YARN, David Ojebola hinted that the project will go through three phases stating that participants were drawn from communities across Ido, Akinyele, and the four local governments in oyo towns.
He urged the government to look into agroecology as one of the important system of agriculture to ensure food sovereignty and security.
“We also need to look at the food we are producing from our farms and also to organize training programs and conferences for farmers particularly small holder farmers,” he said
He urged the farmers to embrace and implement the knowledge gained on their farms so as to benefit from the incentives to be given out by the organization.
A participant who is also the coordinator, Small Scale Women Farmers Organization of Nigeria ( SWOFON) in Akinyele local government, Mrs Olusola Ayinde Tukur, while appreciating the organizers of the the training program called for a ban of chemical products imported for crop production.
“They should ban the importation of products, chemical-based products. They are causing more harm than good and are making our people sick.
“We are having different ailments that we are not supposed to be having in Nigeria. We want to implore our government to please stop it. Ban the importation of these goods and stop foreigners from coming to use pesticides and herbicides to spoil our soil”, she urged
She noted that chemicals used on the farm or in the poultry ends up in the human body, causing various diseases in young children such cancers, diabetes among others
“We are what we eat, we are a product of what we consume, what we inhale, what we drink.We need to be very careful,” she warned
” I want to appreciate the organizers of this program for taking us back to our roots. Our parents don’t use chemicals in farming. If we go back to that, we will be able to live long.”she concluded
In the same vein, other farmers , Mrs Oluremi Oyetunji and Hamed Kamilu from Oyo town urged the federal government to support and promote the use of compost manure in crop and livestock production in Nigeria through provision of incentives
The duo also called for the ban of chemical products imported into the country as citing it adverse effects in both the soil, plants, livestock and the human body.
