FUTA Don Explores Ways To Improve Soil Fertility To Address Prevailing Food Crisis, Emerging Climatic Changes…

Researches done over the years to address prevailing food crisis, coupled with energy crisis and emerging climate change issues which daily threatens the livelihood of millions of poor people as well as their economic, ecological and political situations took the front burner as a Professor of Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition, Prof. Moses Adeyeye explored ways to improve soil fertility in order to feed the ever growing population with healthy food.

Delivering the 129th Inaugural Lecture of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, FUTA today titled: “The Nexus of Population, Food Security, Climate Change and Plant Nutrition: Organic Waste As Alternative Fertilizer In Nigeria”, at the university’s main auditorium, Prof. Adeyeye took time to analyse population-climate change- food security- nexus as it affects soil fertility and plant nutrition saying there is the need for farmers to adopt organic farming systems as it is more resilient to predicted weather extremes and can produce higher yields than conventional farming system under same conditions.

Prof. Adeyeye who underscored the need also for healthy soil, devoid of ‘cides’, further stressed that the catch is not in producing more but in producing better quality and quantity by bringing food production within a safe environmental limits while paying attention to climatic change.

Some of his recommendation include the need for government to invest in healthy, living soil by channeling agricultural subsidies towards sustainable farming methods, and also for agricultural systems to change since climate is changing.

While charging farmers to learn to obtain all their nitrogen from organic sources such as compost, manures, green manures among others, Prof. Adeyeye also urged government to intensify the use of bacteria inoculant to produce crops.

He also charged government and private stakeholders to invest in recycling of sawmill waste as feedstock to produce biochar in order to reduce greenhouse gases from sawmill among others.

Earlier in his address, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Fuwape ably represented by Deputy Vice Chancellor, Prof Philip Gbenro Oguntunde, while welcoming guests applauded the Inaugural Lecturer, for his remarkable contributions to academia.