Mannir Dan-Ali,
and give them what they need.
And does it fetch a premium price, something more than the price of a non-organic produce?
Of course that will be natural because we all know that any good you sell you consider the time, material and effort used and being organic it will require a whole lot more effort because if you are not using all those things that boost your crops you might produce less on a piece of land that you might produce more if you applied chemical fertiliser and pesticides. So the cost of production as well as more time and effort are incurred, so there will be a slight increase in price and I am sure people can appreciate that as they understand how much effort is used to produce organically.
What are the challenges that a farmer faces if he chooses to go organic?
The biggest challenge is managing the pests because overtime they have become resistant and sometimes no matter what you do you cannot just subdue the pests without using some chemicals as the other option is to watch them destroy your farm. That is why a lot of farmers now opt to minimise the use of chemical application. So the big challenge is the evolving nature of diseases and pests and you may find that whatever you are using, tomorrow it might not be effective. So if that happens what are you going to do? So the best bet is to understand the pests and animals you are dealing with and the diseases as well.
Is there a conscious effort by like minded people who want to go organic to come together and promote it among the generality of Nigerians?
Oh yes, we have been having series of meetings with some young people and because I have that awareness, I really want to push it and the more you find one or two people who are thinking like you the more you get encouraged. I have met a couple of people and we share the same passion and together,