A renowned Professor of Soil Microbiology, Oluwatoyin Babalola, has said that policy on agricultural practices in Nigeria should promote sound management of soil organic matter. She made this known while delivering the 86th Inaugural Lecture of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State, titled: ‘Soil Microbes: Nature’s Workforce for Soil Quality Maintenance, and Sustenance of Environmental Integrity’, held at the Oluwafemi Balogun Ceremonial Building of FUNAAB.
The don, who is of the Department of Soil Science and Land Management, College of Plant Science and Crop Production (COLPLANT) of FUNAAB, called for government’s support for organic farming, stressing that organic agriculture requires a more deliberate and concerted support from all stakeholders in order to encourage farmers adoption and participation, adding that organic production system promotes soil health, ecosystem services, food safety, and environmental health.
She emphasised that conservation agriculture should be encouraged and promoted, noting that farmers should be encouraged to embrace soil conservation practices such as conservation tillage, cover cropping and crop rotation, saying these practices tend to protect and preserve soil resources, thereby enhancing their contributions to soil productivity. Prof. Babalola, who commended the efforts of FUNAAB at creating conducive environment for research by providing research facilities and assisting staff to obtain research funding.
The Soil Microbiologist, however, reiterated that “there is need to intensify efforts on obtaining research funding”, noting that many of their research efforts had demonstrated high agricultural potentials of some materials, but many of these materials have not been packaged into adaptable technologies that can be made available to farmers. She said there was the need for more applied research to translate successful basic research into inputs that farmers could use, and called for strong collaboration between researchers and agricultural extension officers in Nigeria.