Oginigba Town Hall, along Trans-Amadi Industrial Area, in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, played host to a good number of farmers.
The farmers drawn from different Local Government Areas in Rivers State, such as: Obio/Akpor, Eleme, Khana, Gokhana, Ahoada West, Ahoada East, Etche, and others, were there, courtesy of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), which engaged them on two days practical Agroecology Training programme between Wednesday, 12th –Thursday, 13th October, 2022, and with the theme: “Farmers’ Dialogue and Training. Agroecology: The Future of farming”.
Earlier, the Programme Manager of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Mrs. Joyce Brown expressed excitement on the number of attendees. She told participants that her organization is a non-governmental one, and that the event was packaged to train farmers for 2days, theoretical and practical as to enable them improve in their farming business.
Farmers, she said needs a lot of support, adding that HOMEF works towards bridging the gap between the decision that Government makes and the people at the grass-root, and what the communities want.
“We interact a lot with the community people, local farmers and fishers, as well as different stakeholders like journalists,scientists, lawyers and government officials.
“We are able to identify issues that the community people are facing and see how policies about these issues can be addressed”, she said, adding that some of these issues are relating to food safety and others.
Mrs. Brown informed that they have had series of training with farmers in most parts of the country like Abuja, Kano, Benin City, as well as in Rivers State, and others, and expressed the hope that the participants will gain something from the training.
In his lecture on “GMOs and their implications for our food system, Health and Environment”, the resource person, Prof.Tatfeng Mirabeau of the Niger Delta University, Bayelsa State, noted that, in Nigeria of today, government don’t care about what people import into the country, saying that every time man offend nature.
Prof. Mirabeau explained that man is the most important being created by God, and given specific things to eat, but regretted that man do everything for money.
While describing farmers as important, he said Nigeria does not need GM Foods.
The professor of medical microbiology lamentedthat no one candifferentiate between GMO foods and natural one. He defined GMO as Genetically Modified Organism, an organism created in a laboratory by taking genes from one species and forcing them into an entirely unrelated species in order to achieve a new trait or characteristic that is not possible in nature, adding that the foreign genes may come from bacteria, viruses, animals or even humans. Prof. Mirabeau reiterated that Nigeria does not need GMO foods, recalling that the results of tests on animals exposed to GMO crops give serious health and economic concerns.
He furthercondemned GMO foods and regretted that Nigeria did not only allowed it into the country but went ahead to commercialize it thereby risking the lives of citizens. According to him, nature has given us the liberty to play with seeds, pointing out that our parents and farmers are intelligent because they understandnature.
The University don further stated that accepting GMO in Nigeria, means risking the lives of Nigerians, and urged participants not to be deceived but get the right information to challenge what is not right.
“Our problem is not food, God has blessed Africa. Africa should not be talking about food crisis, our problem is how to utilize our resources and maximize potentials”, Prof. Mirabeau said. He noted that statistics haveproofed that as it stands today, about 45 percent of our food produced perish within the farms and markets, and that GMO is just to increase the amount of foods perish within the farms and markets.
He called on the Government to fix infrastructures to facilitate the movements of foods produced from the farms to the markets. Prof. Mirabeau recalled that corruption has eaten deep into the fabrics ofour society, stressing that Government has to make funds available to people so that they can afford good foods.
“What the farmers need is organic fertilizers to help them grow their natural foods”, he added, and advocated for Agroecology technology, which according to him, is not risky, as it aligns with our natural system of production.
He encouraged the government to educate and empower our farmers along the line of agroecology.
In her presentation on “Agroecology as a viable solution for the food and climate crises”, the programme manager of HOMEF, Mrs. Joyce Brown explained that Agroecology is the best alternative to GMO, as it is important and remains the future of farming in Africa.
Mrs. Brown maintained that Agroecology is the system of agriculture that aligns with nature, saying that some of its practices includes;mixed cropping, which entails the planting of different kinds of crops, crop rotation, and cover crops,which she said help the soil and the ecosystem to withstand some of the negative challenges; and as well as animal droppings which lead to robust farm produce. She further maintained that Agroecology can produce enough food that can feed a state, and the nation, as it is scientific in nature, and knowledge intensive with wide concept.
Agroecology, she opined depends on the knowledge of local farmers, adding that with Agroecology, farmers have the right to what they produce and how to produce without any inhibition. Agroecology, she insisted assures food sovereignty,and security, and helps us to adapt to the impact of climate change.
Mrs. Brown said there are different dimensions to Agroecology such as economic dimension, political dimension, technological and socio-cultural aspects, and others.
In an interview with journalists shortly after the event, Mrs. Joyce Brown reiterated that most of the carbons lost and released into the atmosphere, and with Agroecology building soils, building capacity itself stands to resist those carbons thereby reducing the impact of climate change. She says Agroecology also helps soils to be resilience to the impact of climate change, as studies have shown that after serious weather event like horicane event in 2008, diversified plots of lands of farmsthat are cultivated are more able to retain water, they have moisture soil and experienced less economic losses than conventional farmers.
“It is important that as a people, as a country, we find our way back to Agroecology, because most of the practices of Agroecology are practices that famers have been practicing overtime, and new practices and innovations in Agroecology, but basically, there are practices that we know, but we are moving away from chemicals and we know the post health challenges to that’”, she said.
Mrs. Joyce Brown, who urged the farmers to reject the right variety Act, passed by the Federal Government, as it is against the local, illiterate farmers.
“The law criminalizes small holders farmers. We belief that farmers should be supported, farmers should be central to policy making and decisions making because small holders farmers contribute a lot”, she said, noting that aspect of the law criminalizes farmers from using seeds that are registered, and seeds that are protected, saying that some of these seeds our local farmers produce them.
Mrs. Brown advised that as a nation, we should make laws that are contextual, laws that protect the interests of our small holder farmers.
According to her, Agriculture in Nigeria is mostly small holder farmers that are sourcing for seeds using, and exchanging for seeds, adding that with this kind of laws farmers would be restricted and won’t be able to freely use, sell or exchange the seeds as normal.
The HOMEF programmed manager, however, called on the Government to ban GMOs because theyare not needed, hence the farmers don’t have problems with their seeds, as the challenges they face are access to credits, access to land, irrigation system.
“They don’t want GMOs because labeling is not possible, and we have also considered several implications on GMOs, on health, environment and on our economy”, she noted pointing out that its important that we build our local economy, empower farmers to produce foods that are culturally safe and healthy. At the end of the two days intensive, but interesting training, participants expressed effusive thanks andcommendations to the management of HOMEF for putting up the event. They also expressed joy and satisfactionover what they described as enriching knowledge gained, adding that they will apply all they’ve learnt to improve on their farming techniques.
Highlights of the programme were questions and answers, group discussions, sharing of knowledge and practical demonstrations among others.
