Don urges FG to enforce law against bush burning in Nigeria
NAN-AE-3
Enforcement
By Victor Adeoti
Osogbo, May 22, 2017 (NAN) Prof. Timothy Olabiyi, a Crop and Environmentalist, has called on the Federal Government to enforce the law that prohibits bush burning in the country.
Olabiyi, who is a lecturer at Ladoke Akintola University (LAUTECH), Ogbomosho, made the call in Osogbo on Monday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
According to him, bush burning destroys soil fertility on the farmland but we still keep doing it in Nigeria.
‘‘It is high time we strengthen our forces against bush burning for sustainable organic agriculture.
“If government can keep on saying it repeatedly, warning farmer groups against it and make a national law which will attract serious penalty, I think many will stop the act.”
He said burning of farmlands would continue to destroy soil fertility, thereby impeding the nation’s agricultural production.
Olabiyi said bush burning usually lead to the killing of beneficial soil inhabiting organisms that enhances soil fertility for improved crop productivity.
He said it was high time government started to punish people burning the nation’s forests so as not to jeopardize efforts at food sufficiency for the country. (NAN)
VE/MOL/AFA
Edited by Mustapha Lamidi/Felix Ajide
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