Growing Opportunities of Climate Smart Agriculture in the Nigerian Agricultural Sector.
Zainab Alaga*
Case study: Clean Technology Hub’s Visit to the Sa’l Ju’mai Consultaire Limited (SACL) Farm, Kwali.
Climate Smart Agriculture in Africa is the future of Global Agriculture. A fact in which Nigeria is not left out. There have been emerging eco-friendly farms across Nigeria and Clean Technology Hub has created a relationship with one of these farms. The Sa’l Ju’mai Consultaire Limited (SACL) is an eco-friendly farm in the community of Kwali, Abuja Nigeria. Their approach to Agriculture fascinated us during our second visit to the farm, a highly insightful one.
Farm practices at SACL such as the use of solar irrigation, make for easier and environment-friendly cultivation. A pest control system that not only protects crops but is also self- sustaining and hardly requires any artificial impacts. One of such pest controls is the Vetiver: a plant that requires no preservatives and can survive in dry seasons even without irrigations and most importantly, distract pests away from crops being cultivated on the farm. Another eco-friendly pest control plant practiced in the SACL farm is the use of the Wild Mint Plant to serve as a distracting agent of pests from crops. The plant attracts insect pests, making them easy prey for birds who feed off them. The farm also engages in the practice of polyculture–which is a more diverse and strategic farm practice for a commercialized agricultural system. The method of planting is rotative: where a shallow crop cultivation is following a deep rooted cultivation, thus, each crop is supporting the other.
In an attempt to curb erosion, the SACL farm team made a decision to forgo the adoption of artificial control agents. Instead, certain plants are cultivated to serve as wind barriers against erosion waves from destroying the soil. The SACL farm is an entirely self-sustaining farm that maintains its practices using eco-friendly approaches. They cultivate bananas amongst other peel plants by using their cutoff parts as manure and biomass. Nitrogen-fixing plants are also cultivated to enrich the soil of its much needed nutrients. The SACL team further shared the need to always cultivate on the farm land as the planting enriches the soil of nutrients. The moment cultivation is halted for a lengthened period of time, the soil begins to lose its nutrients.
Sa’l Ju’mai Consultaire Limited (SACL) Farm has a shared passion of enlightenment with Clean Technology Hub. Through training, workshops, and cultivation practices– the farm team aims to wean farmers off their constant dependence on seeds which is an overpriced approach to farming. Rather, the SACL farm team desires to teach farmers methods in growing plants that produce hundreds of seedlings which will in turn expand the categories of crop cultivations practiced by farmers at no extra cost with significant multiplication on crop cultivation and diversities.
The SACL farm has a broad range of eco-friendly agricultural practices rural farmers in Nigeria and across Africa can utilize to develop their workmanship which eventually will be of an advantage to the global agricultural sector as a whole. The earlier statement: Climate Smart Agriculture in Africa is the Future of Global Agriculture, is not an abstract but it is gradually becoming a reality and Clean Technology Hub is excited to be a part of this revolution and what is to come.
Zainab Alaga* is a Junior Research Analyst, Cross-Cutting Practice at Clean Technology Hub.
