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Victor Chude, president, Soil Science Society of Nigeria (SSSN) has said that the country’s low soil fertility is responsible for the high application of fertilisers by farmers across the country, especially in the northern region.
The scientists made this known during the 42nd annual conference of SSSN themed ‘Sustainable Management of Soil and Water Resources for Food Security, Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation’ held recently at the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T) in Ibadan, Oyo state.
Chude also declared that all efforts must be put in place to tackle the impending effects of climate change on food production.
“Presently our soil in Nigeria are very low to medium in fertility, if you start from the northern part of the country moving south, the soils up north are lower in fertility than the ones down south, so in terms of fertilizer use, fertilizer use is higher in the northern part of the country because of the low fertility in northern part of the country,” Chude said.
“In the southern part of the country, you have a lot of turnover, left or return of pillage back to the soil and all that, that is the stage of the soil in Nigeria,” he further said.
He maintained that the theme of the conference was chosen to draw attention of policy makers to the impending effects of climate change.
The president however cautioned that efforts must be put in place to address the problems of climate change due to the adverse effects it will have on food production in the country.
“Today has been set aside for the 24th annual conference of the Soil Society of Nigeria and the theme is Sustainable Management of Soil and Water Resources for Food Security, Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, the theme has been chosen to draw attention of our policy makers to sustainable management of soil and water in addressing the problems of climate change which is very real.
“If nothing is done about climate change you know what the consequence is, the first thing is adverse effects on food and nutrition, so over the last couple of years, our members have been working on research of this area of agricultural and that is what we are going to be sharing among ourselves and members of the press will have a lot of things to share with Nigerians,” he stated.
To tackle this problem, he suggested efficient management of the soil across the country.
Akinremi Feyisipo, Ibadan
