The Vice Chancellor, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Professor Kolawole Salako, has canvassed for the need for the nation to apply the right management to improve soil productivity and mitigate any process that would further degrade or decrease the soil available for crop cultivation.
The VC, who is a Fellow of Soil Science Society of Nigeria (FSSSN) while delivering inaugural lecture on soil at the university, demands for an upgrade of soil database in the country, adding that the focus should be on how to manage the soil in Nigeria to improve agricultural production.
Soil Conservation is a combination of practices used to protect the soil from degradation or prevention of reduced fertility caused by over usage, acidification, salinization or other negative chemical contamination of the soil.
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Professor Salako charged on the need for the nation to position soil in such a way that will be beneficial to mankind, adding that the country needs more land for agriculture as a result of competition on the land, especially from the construction industry.
“The issue of productivity comes in now because the land available for cultivation is shrinking. Agriculture will usually lose out when it comes to land development; everybody wants to build skyscrapers, they think that the money that will come out is far more advantageous than having food.
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“ So the option that we have is to also ensure that the little land we have we make it productive, the little land that we have in agriculture, we manage it so well to avoid soil degradation, that’s the essence of focusing on soil,” he added.
Professor Christopher Adejuyigbe, a Professor of soil fertility in the university stated that soil is a major component of land and basis for agricultural production, reiterating the need for measures to improve soil productivity and mitigate any process that would further degrade soil available for crop production.
