Former Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture; Mr. Menka Kwaku Fordjour, has cautioned against the over-reliance on inorganic fertilizers for high agricultural yields.
Speaking on Kumasi-based Oyerepa FM, the former MoFA Director advised the government to stop supplying inorganic fertilizers to farmers especially those in the northern parts of the country. He explained that in many cases, the farmers are better off using organic compost instead.
Mr. Fordjour revealed that inorganic fertilizers change the pH of the soil and make it acidic. He added that inorganic fertilizers affect the water holding ability of the soil and makes the organic content of soils poorer.
He stressed that farmers who rely constantly on inorganic fertilizers will always require more than they used in previous years in order to obtain the same yield.
To buttress his point, Mr. Fordjour cited a report from the Centre for No till Agriculture which indicated that lands that have not had any fertilizer in the last 5 years was still recording yields higher than those using fertilizers.
“Fertilizers sometimes even become toxic when there is inadequate water in the soil” he said and advised the government to encourage the use of compost instead of inorganic fertilizers. He however conceded that the compost required more labour to apply in comparison to the inorganic fertilizers.
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