ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
The National Institute of Soil Science, North-East Zone, has donated no fewer than 150 soil testing kits to states in the zone to enhance crop production.
The Zonal Coordinator of the Institute, Prof. Saminu Abdulrahman Ibrahim, disclosed this on Thursday during a training and capacity building workshop for Project Managers of the Agricultural Development Projects in the north-east states.
Professor Abdulrahman noted that the Institute was established by an Act of the National Assembly in 2017 and has several duties most of which center around improving agricultural productivity in the country.
“This workshop is one of the mandates of the institute. This capacity building is very central in the mandates of NISS”.
“NISS has donated 150 soil testing kits which is very commendable. If you have the kits but you don’t have the knowledge of how to use it, it is useless and that’s why we are here today to acquaint ourselves with these kits so that we will be able to use them adequately, so that everybody will benefit in the final analysis.
“This is a step down process, if you are not able to grasp what is being discussed today, then, it will be very difficult for you to pass it on as you try to train others,” he said.
Professor Muhammad Hassan, said that the Project Managers of the six states in the zone were represented at the capacity building workshop by the Directors of Extension and Technical Services for ease of stepping it down to farmers at the grassroots.
“I have discussed with the Project Managers, there are Registered Soil Scientists in each state of the zone, after this training, they can also organize a brief so that the step down will now go to the end users who are the farmers,” he said.
Prof. Hassan also emphasized the importance of soil testing in crop production, saying that: “Soil is a seed, it is just like our stomach, we can put everything in it, it will accept it but a time will come when there will be an upset in the stomach, that is when we will take ourselves to the doctor, and that is the same thing as the soil.
“You will add organic manure, add chemicals, add anything, there will come a time when that soil cannot provide the needed productivity to our crops, then we will say that soul has a problem. So, we are here to find out how such can be leveraged.
“Soil testing analyses is important for farmers to better understand their soil types and deficient of nutrients and it help to minimize the quantity and different types of fertilizers, it become cost benefit to peasants. It also helps determine the level of availability of nutrients for the healthy growth of the plant or the need for its introduction.”
In a goodwill message, the Project Manager, Bauchi State Agricultural Development Programme, Ja’afaru Ilelah, commended the Institute for organizing that step down capacity building workshop saying that the benefits to farmer cannot be overemphasized.
“Looking at the people being trained here today, Directors Extension and Technical Services and farmers, they are the key to the success in crop production. If these people are not well equiped on all the knowledge that is needed and the procedures to be followed in testing our soils to know its status and to know what to do, at the end of the day, most of our farmers will just be planting on their soils without knowing the status of that soil and without getting the right harvest expected.
“It is commendable and I want to thank the Nigeria Institute for Soil Science I. the northeast for consideration farmers and building their capacity so that they will increase in their production.
“It is a known fact that of you don’t know that status of your soil, you will just be cultivating your crops without any definite expectation because if you know your soil’s status, you’ll know the right direction to take, the type and quantity of fertilizer to apply and you will know the type of crops to plant on that soil. At the end of the day, you’ll have a great expectation on what you’ll get at the end of the day.”
Also speaking, a former Vice Chancellor of the Prof. Garba Babaji, opined that the issue of crop production has gone beyond a system that was inherited by past generations, but “it has reached a time where skill is required and entrepreneurship to achieve our desired goals.”
According to him, if farmers would give more attention to practices that would enhance their crop yield, they would not have to spend so much and at the end, harvest little.
“One of the things I find very tragic is that many farmers undertake to cultivate huge expanse of land, when, in actual fact, if only they concentrate and do what is appropriate on one hectare, they will get more than what they are getting on five hectares.
“We should undertake our agricultural enterprises with skill and knowledge, we should not base it on what we inherited or on guess work.
“We must be conscious of land degradation, when you use land to cultivate crops for several years, it tends to get impoverish and unless you’re conscious of what it takes to keep sustaining the nourishment of the soil, you will keep wasting your resources, wasting your efforts and at the end of the day, you’ll become frustrated,” he stated.
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