AGRIC EXPERTS WANTS NIGERIA TO REVISIT ORGANIC FARMING

Tunji Olukoya, the Chairman
Agriculture Trade Group,
Nigerian Association of
Chambers of Commerce, Industry,
Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA),
on Wednesday urged Nigeria to
exploit its vast agricultural land
for organic farming and food
export.
Olukoya, who said this in an
interview with the News Agency
of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos,
insisted that organic farming
was more profitable, especially if
the produce was targeted
towards the West, which is used
to chemically induced inorganic
foods.
``We have an advantage in Africa
– Nigeria and Africa generally,
because we have uncultivated
land in plenty.
``And this is the edge that we
should be looking at as Africans,
as Nigerians, because we have
the competitive advantage of
being able to produce organic
products.
``Organic product have a great
market abroad; they have now
started to see that they have
destroyed their own
environment through large scale
farming using chemicals and so
on.``
Olukoya explained that the
environment in developed
countries had already been
polluted by the industrial
chemicals in the soil, a situation,
which, he said, had affected
agricultural production in those
countries.
``Environment abroad has been
polluted because they have so
much industrial chemical in their
soil so it is almost impossible for
them to have organic products.
``Organic products are the best
for human beings; they have not
been tainted with chemicals and
so on.
``Africa, Nigeria is where you find
that land has not been polluted
by industrial pollutant; that you
can have large tracks of land
where you can actually do these
organic products.
``Organic products, in terms of
price, are in multiples of the cost
of the ordinary products like the
organic eggs, the chicken we use
to eat when we were young,`` he
said.
He called on farmers to make
judicious use of the fertile land
available in the country to
produce organic products to
boost export and make profit.