The minister of agriculture, Audu Ogbeh has shared that the Federal Government is doing all it can to steadily end the use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture.
He said the move will decrease soil damage and make sure the production of healthy food for Nigerians is priority.
His words, “We are slowly going to begin to eliminate chemical fertilizers. Organic nature means that this is what nature is all about without polluting it with salt, the chemical fertilisers are salt.
‘‘They damage the soil of all kinds and over a while, you find out that the soil is no longer good for you because they destroy the microbes which make the soil more productive. We need to make the food healthier because a lot of self-poisoning is going on in the country.
‘‘Even the machines we use to grind tomatoes in the market, metal rubbing against metal; particles of heavy metals getting into the food. ‘Suddenly, you see a young person in the hospital, like 20 years of age suffering from liver and kidney problem and you ask, do you drink alcohol, he says no, then what is happening?
‘‘We are not probing enough but we want to start in agriculture, eliminating dangerous elements from our food.
‘‘The place to begin is the farm, right from where you are planting, from the soil, from the bio-chemicals, the water, all of that has to be controlled and then you have healthy foods.”
