INTERVIEW: How organic farming helps farmers tackle ginger wilt disease, climate change impacts — Expert

In this interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Benjamin Echor, Chief Agronomist/Technical Operations Head at the Eco-Farms and Agro-Services Company in Plateau State, spoke about the significance of adopting environmentally friendly agriculture practices (agroforestry, organic farming, etc) to curb “bacterial wilt diseases” ravaging ginger fields in the country.

He shared insights into how farmers can use good agronomic practices to reduce the lingering effects of weather fluctuations due to climate change on crop production in the country.

Read the full interview here.

PT: Please, explain why farmers should adopt organic farming models and why you ventured into organic farming advocacy and training.

Echor: Sustainable production of sufficient high-quality food for a growing population is a major global challenge. There is also an increasing need for a more stable and balanced ecosystem while engaging the environment to provide for man’s basic needs. This involves conserving biodiversity, managing natural resources, and improving human health and well-being, especially for the rural poor in developing countries. Other factors, such as global supply shocks, price volatility, growing weather anomalies, and rapidly depleting soil health and fertility, further exacerbate this situation. Building a sustainable agricultural future that guarantees sufficient and affordable food for all requires an innovative shift in our conventional farm practices.

Benjamin Echor, Chief Agronomist/Technical Operations Head at the Eco-Farms and Agro-Services Company in Plateau State

I firmly believe the organic/conservation farming model provides enormous opportunities and resources to address this challenge. Our early ancestors’ crop yields depended on internal resources, recycling of organic matter, built-in biological control mechanisms and rainfall patterns. Yields were modest but stable. Production was safeguarded by growing more than one crop or variety in a field as insurance against pest outbreaks or severe weather. Nitrogen inputs were gained by rotating major field crops with legumes. In turn, crop rotation suppressed insects, weeds, and diseases by breaking the life cycles of these pests. As agricultural modernisation progressed, the link between ecology and farming was often broken as ecological principles were ignored and overridden. Evidence has accumulated that while current capital and technology-intensive farming systems have been extremely productive and competitive, they have also caused a variety of economic, environmental, and social problems. At the Eco Farms and Agro Services Company, we work with farmers and farm organisations to look at their farm models and explore better sustainable approaches they can leverage that will mitigate the appeal challenge, improve their productivity, reduce negative impacts on the environment, human health and overall reduce the cost of productivity.

PT: ⁠You have advocated conservative agriculture (agroforestry); what are the untapped potentials in this farming model that farmers are not leveraging to scale up production sustainably?

Echor: Agroforestry provides a huge opportunity to address many of the food security and environmental challenges man is battling. By embracing agroforestry, farmers can promote overall agricultural development and diversification into high-value crops in Nigeria while encouraging environmental conservation by planting trees. This can create jobs, empower communities, and strengthen the rural poor while encouraging reforestation across the country. There are several untapped potentials in this farming model. The key ones are the absence or the disappearance of the agroforestry industry. At the Eco Farms and Agro Services Company, we have identified communities across Nigeria that fall trees and clear shrubs to prepare fields for farming. These trees, vital for biodiversity interactions, are often seen as barriers to photosynthetic processes, benefiting the farmers in little or no way.

Furthermore, there are millions of hectares of homesteads with untapped agroforestry potential. We work with farmers to change this narrative by encouraging co-cultivation of high-value economic trees with staples. This model includes the introduction of Hass Avocado, Macadamia, coffee, mangoes, citrus, banana and several other key high-value trees to smallholder family farmers. Instead of just preaching afforestation against the widespread deforestation to mitigate rising climate change impacts, we discovered if farmers who are key actors in driving and shaping climate indices via their roles in environmental interactions are rewarded by building high economic values, products and incentives, they will be eager to embrace such more environmental conservation approaches. We have recorded an increasing interest by farmers in this project as compared to the conventional approach. Each farmer or group of farmers signs a contract with The Eco Farms and Agro Services Company, committing to adopting fruit trees they will integrate into their fields. These trees are available at our nursery at a fee per grafted/tissue culture plantlet. Farmers are to plant and nurture trees to maturity (about 2-4 years). Ensure inputs used in nurturing fruit trees are organic or approved by our local crop advisors. At points of harvest, comply with harvesting and packaging protocols. We, in turn, support farmers with all the agronomic knowledge and training to aid the successful growth and management of the fruit trees, aggregate products at harvest and provide a ready market for the fruits. The project aligns with the Bonn Challenge, The African Union Agenda 2063, and The Eco Farms and Agro Services sustainable agricultural development plan. It has the potential to empower and create additional income for over 5,000+ smallholder family farmers, Restore degraded lands, and turn homesteads into high-value income-generating channels for rural low-income families.

Furthermore, it will strengthen rural smallholder family farmers by exposing them to export opportunities, employment, and value addition while eliminating food waste. We have developed detailed training manuals and resources to equip farmers and local field advisors with the necessary crop-specific knowledge and skills to ensure the safe production of sufficiently high-quality fruits and other agroforestry products and services while minimising harmful environmental impacts and restoring degraded land. This manual focuses on the grower’s role in providing sufficient high-quality fruits, products and services that meet the goals of globally acceptable good Agricultural practices (GAP), Good Handling Practices (GHP), and Food Safety standards. Each supply chain operator will find appropriate protocols to ensure smooth cultivation, management, harvest, packing, storage and logistics. Each step influences the quality of the fruits and other value-added products that may arise from these fruits. We holistically view the entire supply chain, taking into account the actions at any point on the other process components. We organise training, extension services and orchard establishment exercises periodically. This is to give farmers practical experience and up-to-date information on best practices. We hope farmers will use these resources and take full advantage of them. So, overall, the farmer enjoys cultivating his field with conventional staples. Still, instead of clearing out trees, he is encouraged to integrate trees (not just any trees, high-value economic trees with ready market) into his field. The farmers know he will get value for his trees, so he is encouraged to nurture them, grow more and embrace agroforestry practices. The farmers win, the environment wins, the consumers win.

PT: ⁠As you already know, ginger is one of the largest spice crops grown in Nigeria, and the industry has huge potential. But most ginger farmers, particularly those in the region of your operation, run on losses recently due to bacterial wilt disease. Are there organic solutions these farmers can deploy to prevent future occurrences?

Echor: Nigeria is the second largest producer of ginger globally, producing over 2 million tonnes annually, next to India, which produces over four million tonnes annually. These two countries account for over 60 per cent of global ginger production. The global ginger market was valued at over $3 billion in 2022. Nigerian ginger is known and celebrated to be the spiciest all over the world. This ginger is exclusively grown in the northern region of southern Kaduna State. With growing demands and economic value, farmers from other regions of the country are beginning to explore the possibility of scaling up production in their local farm communities. Ginger accounts for one of Nigeria’s largest horticultural spice crops for local and export markets. The quality of Nigeria’s fresh and peeled dried ginger is considered among the best in the world and has continued to fetch higher prices on the global market. A range of high-value-added products, from medicinal beverages to culinary products, are prepared from ginger. The Nigerian ginger industry has a huge potential to top the global chart with its highly valued and priced ginger products. This has not been achieved owing to several constraints. They include but are not limited to poor application of good agronomic practices, absence of improved and disease-free planting materials, occurrence of the dreadful rhizome rot disease, competition at the global level and requirement of standards for exporting ginger and its products to foreign markets. In 2023, these challenges were further exacerbated by the outbreak of the dreadful bacterial wilt disease (causative agent: Ralstonia solanacearum) in cultivated ginger in Nigeria (Kaduna State).

A recovering Ginger field in Southern Kaduna after treatment with Bio-pow fungicide/bactericide.

Healthy lush fields infected with the pathogen show the early yellow spot that may be confused for fungal infection (this misled the Nigerian farmers as they kept treating fungal infections with no results); at about three weeks, the diseased leaves begin to roll and curl outward and eventually after four weeks, if not treated, plants begin to stunt. Leaf cells turn bronze, then necrotic (cells and tissues begin to die from the associated disease injuries). Prominent symptoms are best noticed from June to August. When suspected rotting rhizomes are cut and immersed in clean, clear water, milky exudates (bacteria) are observed oozing out of the rhizome. The disease is highly contiguous and destructive and can infest and destroy entire farms within four weeks. As was experienced in Kaduna, entire hectares of farms and investments were lost to the infection. The reasons were that farmers were slow to report disease outbreaks to relevant authorities, and no known effective solutions were available (most available treatments were not responsive, and the disease spread and destruction were slow). Currently, Nigeria’s sustainability of the ginger value chain is threatened as farmers struggle with access to clean, disease-free planting materials, fields, and effectively formulated products to address the disease. Most farmers have abandoned ginger cultivation for an alternative crop, turmeric.

Disease spread is essentially via contaminated planting materials (seed rhizomes) as ginger has no seeds, and planning is from repeated cutting and multiplication of rhizomes; hence, if they are infected, disease spread is easy among farmers. Furthermore, through farm tools and implements, it is important to clean all tools and implements commercially shared with other farms. All footwears should be washed and disinfected before farm visits, more emphasis should be placed on this during disease outbreaks. Hand washing with soap is an added advantage. Open grazing should be discouraged.

Diseased ginger field

The Eco Farms and Agro Services Company and its partners at JR Agro Ltd have developed a robust protocol and a range of organic products to prevent and manage Bacteria Wilt Disease. These protocols include working with farmers to provide as well as teach farmers how to access and manage clean, disease-free planting materials via understanding Single Bud Technology (SBT) for the production of ginger seedlings in the nursery, how to disinfect existing rhizomes (using rhizomes soak treatment) and implementing GAPs for soil health and fertility management. We have developed four commercially available organic products designed to manage bacterial wilt disease and several similar plant diseases in Nigeria. Farmers have recorded yield successes in Kaduna State and other states from demonstration fields and communities. These products include Richfield organic NPK fertiliser, All-natural biostimulant, Bio-pow fungicide/bactericide and NPK promox foliar fertiliser. We believe a key aspect for addressing this challenge is providing extension services to rural smallholder family farmers. As such, we have developed practical educational materials (manuals) and experience centres to close gaps in good agricultural practices and achieve a sustainable production of sufficient high-quality ginger.

Fertiliser

PT: Most Nigerian farmers fall trees to grow crops; as a conservation agriculturist/advocate, how do you feel about such practices amidst climate change fears?

Echor: The practice of falling trees for farming has been with man since time immemorial. The challenge with the modern man is that he removes without replacing and considering the impact. Hence, he has no strategy for replenishing. Falling of trees also goes beyond farmers; it includes real estate developers, who take down every tree on their construction site and interlock everywhere, only to complain of heat. It also consists of the lucrative charcoal maker, the Lumberjack, who indiscriminately lumbar trees. It feels terrible to see whole forests and species that took years to grow disappearing owing to this practice. Modern science is helping us better understand trees and their intricate roles in climate regulations, soil health and fertility, biodiversity interactions and, importantly, their enormous phyto-resources. However, the next question would be what solutions can be explored. There are existing laws to regulate such activities, but they don’t seem to make any impact. I think the first thing is the need to educate the populace on the negative impacts of such actions; the other key aspect would be to begin to demonstrate to farmers, builders and wood fuel makers that there are ways to coexist with trees and wildlife in general, and sustainable ways to harvest trees and wildlife without necessarily upsetting the ecosystem. This may include but is not limited to farmers deliberately leaving meadows with trees, particularly at the boundaries of their fields, and a deliberate embrace of agroforestry. Homeowners can invest in domestic fruit and timber trees. Commercial wood fuel and logger business people can invest in forest development with a controlled harvest. Until such practices are implemented, I fear we may wake up one day and find that we have lost most of our natural forest and the impact we may not be able to fathom.

PT: Do you think the Nigerian government is doing enough to encourage an agroforestry farming model?

Echor: Agroforestry is a land use practice that involves deliberately integrating trees, crops and animal production. It is the deliberate focus on the interactions between trees, agricultural activities and production. Nigeria used robust agroforestry practices in the early rubber, cocoa, and palm plantations, where crop farming and animal husbandry thrived. As the plantations aged, and canopy covers closed, such practice was gradually lost. The growing climate risks pose serious threats to Nigeria’s agricultural development goals. Agricultural productivity in Nigeria and most of sub-Saharan Africa is mainly smallholder-dominated and dependent on rain-fed farming, which exposes it negatively to climate anomalies, such as flash floods, drought, and severe heat. Rural low-income families are disproportionately vulnerable to the effects and impacts of climate change while they battle insecurity and price volatility. It is, therefore, imperative to promote a sustainable and resilient agricultural transformation agenda that mitigates and adequately adapts to climate and other environmental risks. Such an agenda requires a production system that sustainably supports Nigeria’s economic, social, and ecological development goals. Key ingredients in driving this transformation agenda are reforms towards a more integrated policy and institutional regime, a vibrant knowledge and innovation support system, and models that promote social inclusion. I strongly feel we still have a lot of work to do as a nation to develop and implement such frameworks.

PT: Is there any correlation between the changing weather patterns in Nigeria and the pest/disease attack on ginger fields experienced by farmers recently?

Echor: Research and farmers’ experience have shown that increasing weather anomalies can be linked to an increased crop vulnerability to infection, pest infestations, explosive weed outbreaks, low yields and several other consequences. A continuous shift in climate patterns in different regions of the world, Nigeria inclusive, may have contrasting impacts. While there might be some benefits, some regions may experience increased food insecurity due to physiological stress, which plants will have to cope with, resulting in vulnerability to disease and an increased cost of production. Extreme weather events such as those increasingly experienced in Nigeria, such as irregular rain patterns, intermittent spells with very high temperatures, accompanied by torrential rains, can increase the potential for several diseases such as fungal, viral, bacterial infestations, insect pest and plant stress, which is precisely what ginger farmers are facing in southern Kaduna. Farmers may work to adjust their planting timing and crop choice and possibly explore more climate-smart practices and climate-resilient crop varieties.

A field demonstration session at Berde with Ginger Farmers during the onset of the 2024 farm season.

PT: What are the best agronomic/conservation practices you think farmers of ginger and other crops within your region of operations should integrate into their practices amidst the changing climate?

Echor: While there may be no one rule that fits all approaches to managing and overcoming the growing dynamics with climate, particularly as regards farming in Nigeria and other parts of the world, there are several key climate-smart agronomic practices that farmers can embrace and leverage to mitigate these growing challenges. These protocols may include, but are not limited to, cultivating climate-resilient crop varieties. Such crops, bred exclusively to thrive in such a challenging environment, can help farmers improve yields and minimise susceptibility to climate hazards. Farmers can select early maturing, cold or heat tolerant, drought or flood-tolerant varieties and plan their planting accordingly. Embracing conservation agriculture: reduced to no-tillage, crop rotation, cover cropping, carbon kidnapping (carbon sequestration), mulching, use of compost, etc., are essential climate-smart agronomic practices that are designed to ensure soil health, reduce surface erosion, increase water holding capacity and overall soil fertility. As discussed earlier, agroforestry involves smartly integrating forestry practices for growing trees, apiaries, crops, or livestock. Trees provide shade, reduce excessive precipitation, and improve soil health and nutrients. In turn, animals, plants, and other species benefit from the complex relationship.

Recycling and mulching in arid fields.

Such practice helps farmers to be more resilient, as they profit from the diverse and interrelated activities. If they are challenged with one aspect, the other can sustain the farmer. Farmers in regions prone to flooding should invest in developing adequate drainage for excess water runoff. Those in regions with drought should invest in water conservation practices and infrastructures. This may include rainwater harvest, use of drip irrigation, etc. These are efficient strategies to ensure adequate water management. Integrated pest, weeds disease and nutrient management – these protocols prioritise environmental and human safety. They ensure a more robust integration of cultural, biological, and chemical approaches for more efficient and effective management.

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This protocol reduces the abusive and excessive dependence on synthetic agro-inputs, thereby preserving biodiversity and soil health while guaranteeing increased yields and sustainability. If farmers widely embrace these climate-smart farming practices, they will benefit from a healthier environment, improved and resilient agricultural productivity, and reduced greenhouse gases, pollution, and other environmental hazards. From a broad perspective, climate-smart agriculture advocates a holistic approach to farming that finds a common ground between economic viability and environmental sustainability, guaranteeing a win-win situation.

Photo with a satisfied maize farmer, who volunteered his farm for demonstration of organic/conservation farming in Jos South Local Government.