By Benard Mulwa.
The government have been promoting the use of chemical fertilizer, pesticides and insecticides that are toxic to the environment loosing soil fertility, agroecology experts and farmers says, setting a dialogue for the uptake of bio-fertilizers in motion.
Esther Bett, the Executive Director at Resources Oriented Development Initiative (RODI) who was speaking during the first National Agroecology symposium held at Kenya School of Monetary studies in Nairobi.
The conference brought together agroecology experts and farmers in the aspects of agroecology to share experiences, learn from studies and researches that have been carried out in different institutions and organisations to advance agroecology. "Our soils in Africa needs feeding and putting enough organic matters" she said, adding that the organisation she runs advocates for making of bio-fertilizers both solid and liquid and training farmers to harvest to slow down the flow of water to sink it in their land.
At the sameyime, Mr. Sebastian Maina the Director of Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM,) challenged the government to look for Sustainable ways of food production accussing the government of giving farmers a row deal by subjecting farmers to agro-chemicals saying are subsidised and yet the costs are very high which largely affected their food production systems, "a majority of farmers still feels there could could be cheaper ways of growing food" he said, adding that farmers want the government to look at other forms of production that are more friendly to farmers to generate their own resources and grow their own food, farmers mastering their own destiny approach and gets fully involved in public participation.
Esther Bett told journalists that through the bio-fertilizers they have produced both liquid and solid have seen improved productivity of the soil and soil heal, "the bio-fertilizers acts as an inoculant, it introduces the basilus, the bacteria, the fugas and the micro nutrients needed in the soil for the soil to start healing itself, growing and it creates an environment for crops to grow, therefore the productivity improves" she said.
