FG to prioritise soil health, Minister assures

DETERMINED to significantly increase yield-per-hectare of farmlands in the country, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security will, beginning next year, accelerate a combination of measures focused on soil health

Speaking while hosting the Deputy Director-General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Dr. Bernard Vanlauwe and Christian Witt, the Senior Programme Officer in charge of Soil Health at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in his office, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Dr. Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, said Nigeria’s yield per hectare was lower than the African average across a range of crops.

He noted that countries with higher yield-per-hectare had taken care of their soil. “If you conquer the soil, the yield gap Nigeria is experiencing can be bridged,” the Minister of State said, adding, “What is important is to support the Nigerian farmer to be more productive. If they can get 10 tonnes per hectare, why leave them at two tonnes per hectare?”

The Minister of State observed that improper use fertiliser and other agro-inputs remained a challenge, pointing out that field reports indicated that in some places farmers were under-fertilizing their farms.

Dr. Sabi Abdullahi emphasised the attendant impact of higher yields per hectare on the nation’s food and nutrition security. “You can imagine the nutritional status, life-changing improvement, and poverty-alleviating effects that would occur if you properly take charge of your soil,” he said.

He also called on IITA to properly align its activities and operations with Nigeria’s national interest, urging a closer relationship with relevant institutions.

The Minister of State invited IITA to assist Nigeria with the revitalisation of its six zonal Soil Laboratories, which are located in the zonal coordinating research institutes in the country. Reviving the Soil Laboratories, Dr, Sabi Abdullahi said, would be useful not just to Nigeria but also to the Regional Hub being conceived by IITA.

Earlier, the Deputy Director General of IITA, Dr. Vanlauwe said the institution was desirous of more active engagement with the relevant technical team at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. He stressed the need to ensure the trickle-down of research findings to end-users in order to maximize agricultural production output.

Also speaking, Soil Health Senior Programme Officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr. Witt, acknowledged the launch this year of the Nigerian Soil Health Card Scheme for farmers and said he was in Nigeria to learn more about what the country was doing in developing a National Soil Information System.

READ ALSO: Ekiti govt warns herders against destruction of farmlands