Centre promotes use of fertiliser alternative to boost agricultural production

The Centre for Global Eco-Innovation (CGE) Nigeria/ACTUATE on Monday, advised farmers in Edo and other parts of the country to adopt the use of digestates as a viable alternative to the use of fertiliser which most farmers are familiar with.

The Chairman and Team Leader of the centre, Prof. Lawrence Ezemonye, made the call during a stakeholders engagement/ workshop for small holder farmers and students on resource recovery.

Represented by Prof. Christopher Emokaro, Ezemonye noted that ACTUATE project recognised the importance of farmers,.

He said further that the workshop was organised to introduce farmers to the use of technology to manufacture fertiliser from waste .

Ezemonye said that technology remained a credible option for the management of waste.

He noted that the centre, located at the University of Benin, was working in collaboration with Lancaster University, UK and the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), the sponsors of the ACTUATE Project.

Ezemonye said that the main objective of ACTUATE was to construct working demonstrator anaerobic digestion facilities in both Ghana and Nigeria to process organic wastes.

“To produce power and for the resulting digestate to be used as a sustainable soil conditioner/fertiliser.

“The training workshop is a fulfilment of one of the core mandates of the ACTUATE project to work with stakeholders to highlight technology as a credible option for the management of waste,” he said.

Ezemonye said that the workshop brought to the fore the importance of universities as strategic economic and development drivers in any region.

He further stated that the workshop was needed to stimulate the interest of the farmers and students in the bioenergy technology to adopt the use of digestates.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the workshop featured presentations by Mrs Valerie Edosa, a soil scientist and a member of the UNIBEN ACTUATE Team.

Mr Mike Ajieh, a member of the the UNIBEN ACTUATE Team, made a presentation on the Process of Bio-digestion and Digestate Production.

NAN also reports that participants at the stakeholders workshop included small holder farmers and students from the faculties of agriculture and engineering of UNIBEN.(NAN)