Agriculturist wants FG to promote, support greenhouse farming
By Olayinka Olawale
Mr Samson Ogbole, Team Lead, Soilless Farm Lab, Ogun State, has urged the Federal Government to provide support for greenhouse farming for all-year-round food production in the country.
Ogbole told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos that government needs to pay attention to other tools within agriculture that could help boost food production.
He said that soilless farming ensures that you annul seasonality of food production for farmers, and farm all-year-round.
He noted that soilless farmers are very few in the country because of lack of support and policy guideline from government.
According to him, government must provide a unified platform for information and this information must be distilled in a way that not only the educated ones can assess, anybody regardless of status will be able to assess it.
“There is a need to pay attention to other tools within agriculture that can help not only the traditional hoes, cutlass and tractors.
“There are things like soilless farming that can also play a role.
“Soilless farming ensures that you annul seasonality of food production for farmers and for the government.
“As a soilless farmer, I don’t get support from the government and the reason is because the government at this point does not even know what soilless farming is, how much more to say they are supporting it.
“The question I always ask people is how much support has been provided for local farmer who has the higher percentage? No, they are not being adequately supported talk less of us.
“Soilless farmers are minuet; we are few and before they come to us, they need to help the local farmers first because if they are helped, we can now focuse on areas that they cannot focuse on,” he noted.
Ogbole said that a lot of people have started showing interest in greenhouse farming in the country and called on government to provide policy guidelines for proper management.
He urged farmers to always seek knowledge and information before venturing into any farming technique to avoid loss of revenue.
“We have lots of green houses right now in the country, at least, I have setup green houses cross 26 states in Nigeria.
“We have a lot of people coming into it but there is a need to understand it. A lot of people come into greenhouse with false promises.
“They make them believe it is the magic to dig it and you blow, which is not the reality.
“Every technology has its business model, if you do not understand a business model of green house farming, you will do it at a loss. That is where there is a gap,” he said. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
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