Farmers urged to adopt urea to mitigate soil acidity

 Farmers have been urged to adopt urea fertiliser in their cropping practices to effectively mitigate soil acidity and promote environmental sustain­ability.

Urea is a low cost nitro­gen-rich fertiliser that promotes plant growth and development.

According to the Head of Horticulture Division of the Council of Scientific and In­dustrial Research of the Crop Research Institute (CSIR-CRI), Dr Micheal Kwabena Osei, Ghana‘s soil was very acidic ,hence its usage would prevent leaching of essential nutrients, and reduce the release of harmful gases into the environment .He indicated that Ghana’s soil acidity resulted in low crop yield and released toxic ammonia gases into the atmo­sphere, thereby threatening human health, hence the need to adopt urea usage.

Dr Osei gave the advice at the pre-launch seminar of Nano Urea fertiliser in Accra to discuss ways of improving the agricultural system in the country.

“Urea deliver nutrients to crops more efficiently and sustainably, thereby reducing waste and envi­ronmental impact,” he said.

Dr Osei further emphasised that farmers should apply urea fertiliser in optimal quantities to avoid over-fertilisation, which could lead to soil nutrient in-balances and crop damage.

“Globally, 188million amount of Urea is applied to crops every year and this means we should be applying in their rightful amounts to prevent over-nutrition, “he revealed.

Urea application, he noted, if adopted would ensure food security thereby reducing the rate at which the country imported various food commodities. He then encouraged farmers to take opportunity of the window, and get to know the prepa­ration of urea to offset part of the costs expended on farm inputs.

For his part, the Head of Soil and Water Management, of the

 CSIR-CRI, Dr Emmanuel Dugan, described the soil fertility status of the country as “very low” adding that it resulted in low exchange capacity in the foreign market.

“Ghana’s complex soil compo­sition, featuring primary and sec­ondary nutrients, calls for targeted fertility management interventions to unlock its full productive poten­tial,”he said

Dr Dugan noted that the or­ganic matter of the country’s soil ranged from 0.24 to 0.99, while nitrogen also ranged 0.03 to 0.08 which thereby implied that the soil fertility of the country was very low.

He advised farmers to conduct soil fertility tests to determine the specific nutrient requirements of their soil, thereby enabling them to make informed decisions on the type and amount of fertilisers to apply.

The Head of Brand, Marketing and Business Development of Jay Kay Industries and Investments Limited, Mr Shreeman Narayan, said that his outfit believed that adapting to changing consumer needs and focusing on sustainability were key success factors amidst this dynamic global.

In attendance were representatives from Jay Kay Industries and Investments Limited, Indian Farm­ers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO), CSIR -CRI, Association of Small-Scale Farmers in Ghana (ASSFG) Peasant Farmers Asso­ciation of Ghana (PFAG) and key players in the agricultural industry

 BY AGNES OWUSU

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