However, the reward of farmers should not be only food; nature (environment) should be an added advantage. Nature should also be a focus as much as food is produced, because healthy food cannot be produced without a healthy environment. Therefore, it is important that farmers employ good practices that are environmentally friendly to produce food and promote sustainable agriculture in all aspects of production activities.

Resources such as water, soil, soil microorganisms, pollinators (bees), air amongst others are important assets of nature to agriculture. Water is taken up by crops, air (in the form of oxygen) is used in food production, soil and soil microorganisms support the mineralisation and releases nutrients to be uptaken by the roots. Therefore, farmers need to be encouraged to embrace practices that would be devoid of overexploitation of these resources, overuse of the soil without replenishing, the use of harmful chemicals to destroy pollinators and natural habitat (ecological structures and elements) amongst others. In other words, we need to embrace sustainable agricultural practices in our production activities to increase productivity and provide alternative livelihood for the farmers.

In promoting sustainable agriculture (Healthy environment and embracing biodiversity are by-products), we encourage the planting of trees or rehabilitation of trees (especially native trees), avoiding bush burning, promotion of intercropping or alley cropping, adoption of integrated pest management (IPM), the use of rain water harvesting method as alternative source of irrigation water, measures in place to stop indiscriminate hunting amongst others. It is expedient that we consciously preserve the environment by assessing the impact of the numerous farming activities on the environment and put measures in place to reduce the negative impacts. This is because we can not achieve food security when the environment and its resources are being threatened.

In conclusion, we need to sensitize our farmers on the importance of the environment and its resources to increasing agricultural productivity, and we need to promote the adoption of climate smart agricultural practices, which are economically viable, environmentally friendly and socially acceptable. We all must be involved in ensuring that agriculture becomes a sustainable means to achieve economic and environmental prosperity for today and the future generations.

Yours-in-Service

Babatunde