Job Osazuwa
As Nigerian markets get saturated with chemicalised and unhealthy foods, experts have re-emphasised the need for consumers to embrace organic foods.
Making the recommendation, Food Brothers Managing Director, Mr. Olawale Makinde, stated that organic foods are capable of taking care of the various health challenges resulting from consuming unwholesome foods.
In a statement released by the organisation after its acquisition of Ephemeral agriculture firm in Ogun State, Makinde stated that researches have shown that organic foods are healthier than conventional and natural foods.
The organic food expert stated that Food Brothers was determined to bring best organic practices in producing and selling local organic foods such as rice, tomatoes, plantain, fish, chicken, vegetables, fruits and cocoyam to end users. Other organic foods available on the stable include melon, pawpaw, eggs and pepper, among others.
“We are not just selling locally produced organic foods, but organic foods along with honesty and integrity in a manner that will be easier for our customers to get our products at their homes and offices, through our home delivery system,” Makinde said.
He said the organisation is a social-marketing agribusiness firm that deals on organic farming, organic farm consultancy and sales of organic foods in Nigeria, as well as training and financing small farmholders on organic foods.
Organic farming is a system of farming done without the use of chemicals, such as fertilisers, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, preservatives and antibiotics, but makes use of manure, crop intensification system, probiotics, natural predators and tree planting system to boost the health of crops, animals, consumers, biodiversity and the environment.
Food Brothers’ Head of Research and Operations, Mr. Gbenga Atobisan, stated that the future of food consumption in Nigeria would be in the hands of organic foods farmers, noting that the level of fertiliser and chemical abuse in conventional farming system in Nigeria was appalling. He stated that unless the ugly trend was quickly checked, chemical abuse in agricultural practices were capable of not just ruining consumers’ health but also that of the nation’s environment.
Atobisan, therefore, urged food consumers to change the dynamics of how chemicals were being used in farming system by patronising only food grown with organic system, which he said is after the health of food consumers.
The United State Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) 2014 report states: “unlike other African countries, Nigeria is yet to develop its potential in terms of organic farming, even though it is an agrarian country with a track record of being world leading producer of some crops at one time or the other.”
The report reveals further that organic farming, aside having the potential to steam nutritional issues in Nigeria, is capable of boosting employment by more than 20 per cent, improving agricultural output and raising human health and environmental health status in Nigeria