Benin City – The National president, Soil And Natural Development Initiative (SANDi), Ezekiel Nwokpoku has called for an end to the use of fertilizer for crops production in Nigeria.
Nwokpoku, who made the call in a Chat recently with The Nigerian Observer in Benin city, Edo state capital said MPK fertilizer is injurious to humans and the entire ecosystem.
According to the soil expert, the consumption of foods produced with inorganic materials, can cause impotency, hypertension, obesity and other immune deficiency disorders.
He noted that, chemicals inherent in MPK fertilizer destroys “soil’s silent builders”, like earthworms, and endangers aquatic lives especially fishes when it gets to the water bodies.
“When being applied, some of the chemicals in it goes straight into the atmosphere; imagine what we breathe in. Again, some of these chemicals as ammonia nitrate come back to us as acid rain when there’s downpour.
“The fertilizer kills any leaf that it touches, thereby depriving microbes of their meal and expose the soil to erosion. And we should not forget that when the earth is scarce of plants, the soil will release the carbon which contribute to ozone layer depletion”, the conservationist maintained
Research showed anthropogenic activities like fertilizer usage on the soil contribute immensely to increased concentrations of Greenhouse Gases into the atmosphere, which depletes the ozone layer that protects humans from ultraviolet rays.
He urged federal and state governments to make legislation to stop the practice, for the overall interest of the environment.
“Let us grow what we eat, as it is what you give to the soil that it would give back to you.
“Many are Obese, hypertensive, infetile, some even have potruding stomach and will tell you it is because they eat in between meals, some will say they eat late, some will even tell you they eat once a day. None will think of the type of food they eat daily, whether they’re organic or not”, Nwokpoku said
