ORGANIC FARMING IMPROVES FARM YIELD

One of the stands that debuted
at the just concluded 8th Abuja
international trade fair was
White Rhino Integrated Farms
which was adjudged the best
exhibitor in agricultural products
and processing by the Abuja
Chamber of Commerce, Industry
Mines and Agriculture
(ABUCCIMA).
Rhino farms which was
established four years ago, was
essentially at the Abuja fair to
promote organic food and by
extension organic agriculture, a
trend that is fast catching up
with developing societies like
ours.
The farms is an indigenous
integrated network initiated by
Nasir Ja'afar Dauda who is the
chairman/ chief executive officer
and Tasiu Muhammad Ringim, a
director: two young Nigerians
who are giving momentum to
the country's quest for
sufficiency in food production.
They have between 200 to 250
hectares of land in Nasarawa
State that they are utilizing for
organic farming. They are mainly
into the production of organic
rice at Yelwan Bassa, melon, corn
at Kokona, Unguwan Kadai and
Ungwan Habu, pepper and
moringa at Gidan Zakara among
others all in the state.
The whole idea of organic
farming could be traced to some
great minds. Such writers in the
United States and Great Britain as
Sir Albert Howard, Rudolf Steiner,
Lady Eve Balfour and J.I. Rodale
were instrumental to the idea.
They publish influential works
introducing the basic idea of
organics. They posited that the
health of plants, soil, livestock,
and people are interrelated. They
advocate for an approach to
farming based on working with
natural systems rather than
trying to control them.
Organic farming emphasises
originality. By these, organic
farmers imply the non-
application of synthetic fertilizer,
pesticides, insecticides or
fungicides. They resort instead to
the use of mainly cow and
chicken dung and droppings as
well as decomposed wild plants
left to mix with soil.
On the contrary, Professor Ishaku
Amapu a soil fertility expert in
the Institute of Agricultural
Research, Ahmadu Bello
University, Zaria, said "the
problem of manures is that the
concentration of nutrients is low.
For example the farm yard
manure research conducted in
ABU Zaria has shown that if you
want to cultivate a crop of maize
of one hectare, you need about
five tones of such fertilizer - that
is 50 bags of 100 kilogrammes -
but you need just eight bags of
mineral fertilizer in such area.