Samson Kukwa-Yanor, Makurdi

A non governmental organization, Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) has embarked on teaching farmers in Benue regenerative agriculture to maintain soil health for more sustainable crop production.

The group undertook a tour of their pilot farms in Gwer East and Gboko local government areas on Monday.

Dr Godwin Atser, Country Director of Sasakawa told newsmen that they focus on regenerative agriculture in such a way that the land can be utilised over and over again without it getting exhausted from over use.

Dr Tser who was representated by Nathaniel Otene, Technical Coordinator, Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Agrifood Systems explained that Sasakawa support farmers with seedlings and technical know how. He said that they do composting and do not depend on only organic fertilizer and animal dung manure because they discovered that not every peasant farmer have enough livestock for that.

Taking journalists round pilot farms, the association’s Technical Coordinator disclosed that Sasakawa provides climate resilient varieties of crops while the community provides land for the pilot farms.

Otene said that the group try to minimise the use of organic fertilizers as much as possible. “We target the soil health to make it productive in the long run. Our aim for establishing the pilot farms is for knowledge transfer to the farmers. We want to see farmers in the coming years practice what we teach them”, he said.

Program Officer, Inclusive Markets and Agribusiness Development of Sasakawa Jonathan Yassah said that the initial improved seedlings are  provided for free to the farmers for the pilot scheme. He said that they are not genetically modified foods.

One of the beneficiaries, Mary Kamave, told journalists at the pilot maize and sorghum farm at Cheedu, Gwer East local government that Sasakawa has taught them “how to make our own manure from readily available materials we considered waste before. Though we also use organic fertilizers, we are nolonger overly dependent on it like we used to do”, she said.

Another beneficiary, Ronald Gbatar who also spoke to journalists at the soya beans pilot farm at Luga, Gboko local government area lauded the Sasakawa group for teaching them how to “spend less and gain more. They have taught us how to do compost manure, now we spend less,” he said.

Moses Nongoatse, Communication Officer of Sasakawa who earlier informed news men that the group gets funding from Nippon and other organizations “wants a third party objective view of activities of the organization after seeing for themselves and interacting with the farmers”.