Hydroponics - Soilless Cropping System, a Panacea to Perennial Nomadic - Fulani and Crops Farmers Conflicts in Nigeria?

Hydroponics - Soilless Cropping System, a Panacea to Perennial  Nomadic - Fulani and Crops Farmers Conflicts in Nigeria?

An introductory topic of agriculture taught at primary school level is that plants need "light, water and soil" to grow. Do the plants really need soil to grow? with the recent technical innovations, this seemingly simple question is proving difficult to answer because of  a crops production technique called Hydroponics "soilless cropping system".  It is a new practice of growing plants without soil. This growing of plants in a nutrient solution root medium, is a growing area of commercial food production. The process may include sand, gravel, rock wool or liquid, with added nutrients but without the use of soil.

Hydroponics is the new way of planting beautiful plants at the limited space of farmer's home or backyard. Through this technique, a farmer doesn't need to worry about using soil, which is a necessary for the conventional plantation method. It is indeed the better option for people who love to garden beautiful plants inside their homes. You can now grow different types of vegetables, herbs. Fruits on your personal garden. Usually, the stems of the plants derive its oxygen from the water and soil while receiving energy from sunrays.

Hydroponics involves supplying the required amount of nutrients to plant, when needed and as healthy as genetically possible. With hydroponics, nutrients are easily and efficiently provided to the plants while in the traditional use of soil it is more difficult and inefficient.  Similarly, with Hydroponics the plants are grown in an inert growing medium and a perfectly balanced pH adjusted nutrient solution is delivered to the roots in a highly soluble form. The use of the nutrient solution permits the plant to easily uptake nutrients as opposed to when the crops are planted in the soil where they would have to search and extract the nutrients while dissipating energy. Thus, plant saves energy in hydroponic system from nutrient intake thereby using it  into vegetative growth, fruit formation and flower production. The nutrient solution is the combination of water and fertilizers, with the farmers getting to dictate how much and of which nutrients they wish to give to the plants. Generally, fertilizers applied for both hydroponic and soil plantation contain the same three major nutrients; nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. In addition, hydroponic fertilizers contain the proper amounts of all the essential micro-nutrients and are usually in a more refined form with lesser impurities as opposed to soil fertilizers. Soilless;  means crop is not planted in soil, thus, no weeds or soil borne pests and diseases. Therefore, plants maintain optimum nutrient and moisture levels in hydroponic system, which offer several benefits: healthier plants, faster growing plants and ability to be more disease resistant as plants are not stressed by drought. The root systems stay smaller on hydroponically grown plants, so the plant can concentrate and uses its energy on producing plant mass, rather than roots. This allows the grower to have more plants per square meter of growing a space. Hydroponically grown plants never get root bound, so they do not need repotting. Hydroponic produce has a longer shelf life than soil-grown produce. Hydroponics is clean. In addition, plants grown in hydroponic system taste better than plants grown in the traditional method of using soil. Quite often this is the case because the plants grown utilizing hydroponics have all the essential nutrients readily available to the plant. In soil the important micro nutrients are often locked away in the soil where the plants cannot take full advantage of these minerals. That is why hydroponics is superior because the grower has complete control over what minerals the plants are feeding on and in what quantities. This advantage permits production of food crop that is far superior in taste, color, size, and nutritional value. The merits for hydroponic system are in exhaustive;  they include reduced water usage, marginal land use,  reduced growth time, reduced labour requirement, cost effective and completely natural. Despite these advantages, hydroponic system is not a perfect system; unfortunately there are few disadvantages in growing fodder in such a controlled, humid, moist environment. Some of the problems that affect the yield production are mould, bacteria and fungi. However, these problems are addressed through –  sterilizing the grains surface to eliminate any mould spores on the grain. In addition, the  surfaces in the growing area can be Sterilized with chlorine or iodine. Make provision for excellent shed ventilation as well as use of sufficient and the correct ratio balance of nutrients in the watering of the plants. No doubt, Hydroponics - the science of growing plants in nutrient-rich solutions instead of soil - has proven itself to be efficient both financially and environmentally. It is indeed the newest and fastest way to grow plants and vegetables, such as lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, celery, watercress eggplants, beans, parsley, wild radish, leeks, strawberries, melons, aromatic, medicinal plants and animal fresh feeds.

The hydroponic system requires a fraction of the water usage of conventional farming while still supplying high quality food crops.  Example, it takes between 1 to 2 litres of water to produce one kilo of fodder as compared with 80 – 90 litres of water to grow a kilo of green grass.

There are many types of crops that can be grown hydroponically. Grains such as oats, barley, wheat, sorghum and corn have all been tried. Similarly, vegetables such as pepper, tomatoes, onions, cucumber can be produced using hydroponic system. However, the major interest here is the production of fodder hydroponically to complement the feeds of cattle and other large ruminant animals in order to address perennial conflicts between Nomadic - Fulani and farmers in Nigeria. The growing of fodder using soil-less growing system is a new concept to Nigeria, although this system has been in use for decades elsewhere and it used for the supply of a wide range of livestock types for many different purposes in varying living environments. It is a well-known technique for high fodder yield, year round production with less water consumption. Fodder produced hydroponically has a short growth period of 7-10 days and requires only a small piece of land for production to take place. It has high feed quality, rich with proteins, fibers, vitamins, and minerals with therapeutic effects on animals. These special features of hydroponic culture, in addition to others make it one of the most important agricultural techniques currently in use for green forage production in many countries especially in arid and semi-arid regions. Hydroponic fodder production involves supplying cereal grain with necessary moisture and nutrients, to enable germination and plant growth in the absence of a solid growing medium. The resulting green shoots and root mat are harvested and fed to livestock. The grain responds to the supply of moisture and nutrients by germinating, sprouting and then producing a 150 – 250 mm long vegetative green shoot with interwoven roots within 7 to 10 days.   Wheat harvested as feed and hay is a significant source of forage for livestock producers in most arid and semi-arid regions because it can be an inexpensive and readily available feed source. Forage wheat has good yield and has been found to have higher nutritive value and lower fiber concentration than other small grains. An impressive result was obtained from the undergraduate project of A. S. Murtala of Agricultural Engineering Department, ABU Zaria who investigated the quality of wheat fodder grown hydroponically for animal feeds. The results indicated that one kilogram of seed (wheat) produced an average of 5.36kg of fodder thus, making wheat as one of the crops that gave high fodder yield and used water efficiently. With good management of the hydroponic system, some farmers were able to obtain 7 – 10kg of edible fodder for every 1kg of grain seed.

In Nigeria, hydroponic farming is making inroad into the Nigerian farming system as technology validation trials among the research centres and adapted by elite farmers. National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS) is among the research centres actively working on hydroponic system. There are many other organizations promoting the hydroponic technology in Nigeria (http://www.hydroponicsnigeria.com, www.notafog2016.com and http://bicfarmsconcepts.com/abeokuta-hydroponics/). These organizations provide training opportunities to interested individuals and corporate bodies.

The possibility of fodder production has been elaborately explained. However, can the use of hydroponic system be a viable method of addressing Fulani -  farmers conflict and find a lasting solution? Concerted effort by Fodder Green Technologies Group is geared towards the use of hydroponic technology for mass production of fodder as feeds for cattle. Already memorandum of understanding (MOU) was drafted between the group and Miyetti Allah, a formidable socio-cultural group of Nomadic Fulani in Nigeria. Is there light at the end of the tunnel? (To be continued next week)

National Teachers Institute: Strengthening Mathematics and Science Education for Solid Technology Foundation in Nigeria

National Teachers Institute: Strengthening Mathematics and Science Education for Solid Technology Foundation in Nigeria

The famous Scientist of the late 1500s, Galileo Galilei was reported as saying “the universe cannot be read until we have learned the language and become familiar with characters in which it is written. It is written in mathematical language and the letters are triangles, circles and other geometric figures…” Since then, mathematics has become essential in many fields of human endeavor. It is the queen of sciences, the pillar upon which technology is built. Thus, the knowledge of mathematics and science subjects is necessary for understanding the basic principles of technology. Generally, technology is referred as the knowledge of how to combine resources to produce desired products, to solve problems, fulfill needs or satisfy wants through technical methods, skills, processes, tools and raw materials. Therefore, all the developed nations became what they are as a result of their technological advancement. Consequently, the technological development of a nation has a direct bearing with the progress of the citizens in acquiring basic knowledge of mathematics and science subjects. It is therefore necessary for Nigeria to have the young ones being effectively groomed in these important subjects at lower level. To do this, a strategy must be made for developing the capacity of the teachers of this lower level.

The saying “You cannot give what you don’t have” is more aptly applicable to teaching profession – you can’t teach what you don’t know. So, Teacher is the foundation of knowledge and when he/she is fully trained and equipped with necessary tools, he/she can impart knowledge to the students who may later become another set of teachers. Continuous capacity building of teachers permits the practitioners of this noble profession to withstand the challenges of twenty-first century and it is one of the reasons why National Teachers Institute (NTI) Kaduna was established. The National Teachers' Institute, Kaduna was established in 1976 primarily because of the pressing need in the country for trained, qualified teaching staff at all levels of the educational system. The Institute's enabling Law charged it among others with the responsibility of "providing courses of instruction leading to the development, upgrading and certification of teachers as specified in the relevant syllabus using Distance Education Techniques. The mission of NTI is to upgrade teachers’ knowledge and skills in curriculum implementation, while instilling in them the virtues of dedication, loyalty, commitment, discipline and resourcefulness. Similarly, the vision of the Institute is to enhance the professional skills of serving teachers for high quality education delivery at primary and secondary levels with a view to uplifting the standard of the educational system in the country.

In the last four decades, NTI has vigorously pursue its mission, made tremendous achievements with tangible records to show and expanded to squarely face other challenges – like poor performance of primary and secondary schools students in mathematics and science subjects.  In the early 2000s, many public schools recorded poor performance with more than 50 % failures in Mathematics and many science subjects at ordinary levels of NECO and WAEC. Indeed, this appalling performance became a national embarrassment especially when the slogan of “2020-20” became the target for Nigeria to be among the top 20 economically developed nations.   Addressing this problem became a national concern; solutions were sought at various fora by stakeholders and NTI devised a means of quickly attending to the problem through creation of a special project; code named “Strengthening Mathematics and Science Education (SMASE)”

Although, SMASE project is not new in Africa, Kenya was the first country to implement such project with both financial and technical supports of Japanese government. The project started in Kenya in 1998 after the signing of bilateral agreement between Kenyan and Japanese governments. The project was initiated due to the poor students’ performance in Mathematics and Science subjects and the need to strengthen the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics by providing in-service education and training to teachers of the subjects. Nigeria through NTI was able to secure similar supports from Japanese government for SMASE project. The successes recorded made the project to spread to 12 additional African countries. The countries are Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Malawi, Ghana, Senegal, Niger, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Mozambique, Southern Sudan and Botswana.

Thus, NTI started the SMASE project in 2006 with three pilot states of Kaduna, Plateau and Niger, respectively. An outstanding result was recorded in these three pilot states that led to the up scaling of the project to cover 32 states between the year 2010 and 2013.

What is the modus operandi of SMASE project? SMASE project involves intensive capacity building of education administrators, teachers and supervisors at different levels with modern tools and experience sharing. The teacher must acquire good knowledge before he/she passes it on to the students. Thus, SMASE through Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) provides customized international training opportunities related to the selected subjects in Japan, Malaysia and Kenya. The categories of personnel for these international trainings are SMASE administrators from State Universal Basic  Education Boards (SUBEBs), Federal Ministry Education, Universal Basic Education Commission , Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, National Education Research Development Centre, NTI and National Mathematics Centre. These opportunities were also extended to the National, State trainers and core teachers from NTI and SUBEBs.

At the national level, NTI on annual basis provides National SMASE customized intensive trainings to 416 primary Mathematics and Science teachers (State trainers) from SUBEBs of 32 states and FCT. Similarly, at the state level, under the supervision of NTI, State SUBEBs provides SMASE trainings to carefully selected 200 primary core teachers from their respective states (Core teachers) 6600 across the 32 states and FCT. The trainings continue to trickle down to the local government area, Zonal and Cluster levels where SUBEBs, using the 200 core teachers, provides cluster SMASE trainings to remaining teachers that did not benefit from the SMASE trainings. The trainings do not end at the cluster level, they are extended to the school level to cover majority of the teachers of mathematics and science subjects and thus, SMASE primary school provides SMASE trainings to the rest of the teachers that have not benefited from the SMASE cluster trainings. These trainings are annually reviewed, redesigned and repeated to all the personnel at different levels while recording the impacts and new challenges in respect of the target – better performance in mathematics and science subjects, 

What are the training contents with a magic wand for performance enhancement in the subject areas?  SMASE training is divided into three cycles of trainings. Each cycle is conducted within a year. The first classification called cycle 1. The training contents of this cycle deal with enhancing positive attitude of teachers and pupils towards the teaching and learning of Mathematics and Science subjects. Sensitization, practical demonstrations, film shows and experience sharing form part of this training cycle. The second classification deals with enhancing classroom activities for effective teaching and learning of Mathematics and Science subjects. The third classification deals the actualization of combined ASEI and PDSI approaches in the teaching and learning of Mathematics and Science subjects. ASEI approach means to actively involve students (pupils) through experiments and demonstrations, improvising by utilising locally available materials in the classroom. PDSI stand for Plan, Do, See and Improve cycle of teachers’ actively. These approaches are practically demonstrated by highly skillful trainers for better understanding of the trainees who should use the knowledge in their classrooms. For efficient use of resources, SMASE trainings are organized in a cascading order from National to state level, local level and school level.

So far, the SMASE project has recorded a number of breakthroughs since its inception in 2006 (phase 1). Some of the recent recorded feats from January, 2010 includes:

(1)        Establishment of a cascading system in which 13 trainees each from 35 states including FCT train 200 core teachers of mathematics and science subjects every year in cycles 1, 2 & 3 in the month of August during long vacation, phase 2.

(2)       Introduction of PDSI (Plan, Do, See & Improve) as an approach that is widely adopted in the country as a medium for disseminating ASEI (Activity, Students-centred, Experimentation & Improvisation) principles.

(3)       Utilization of International trainings sponsored by JICA by sending trainers to countries like Japan, Kenya for capacity building in learner-centred approach from 2010 to date.

(4)       Encourage most states in establishing state In-service Training centre across the country (2011).

(5)       Mobilization of funds through SUBEBs to conduct the training at various levels (National, State and Local) (2013).

(6)       Ability to sustain the programme even after the exit of Japan Government through JICA in February, 2014.

(7)       Being able to develop new training materials and modules as well as improvisation of skills to continue with new cycles 4 and 5 for further capacity development of the trainees. This feat was achieved in this year, 2016.

(8)       Commissioning of E-learning centre, Basic Science Laboratory and ICT Laboratory in the SMASE complex so as to upgrade the centre to a regional In-service Training .(INSET) centre. This was done in January, 2016.

The impacts of SMASE project are clearly exhibited in the improved performance of secondary schools graduates across the country in recent years. Nowadays, it is common to find a public school with record of more than 50 percent of her candidates obtaining five credits and above in NECO and WAEC. Although, the reason for this improved performance may be combination of many factors but there is no doubt that SMASE project has significantly contributed to the outstanding performance. In conclusion, NTI has demonstrated her capability to sustain SMASE project after expiration of the support of Japanese government that ended in 2014.  In Nigeria, most of the developmental projects with foreign financial supports cease to exit when the financial supports are exhausted. Instead, NTI has not only sustained the project but expanded it to higher level. This is quite commendable but other stakeholders must rally round to share costs and responsibilities in order to sustain this laudable project. All hands must be on deck to build the solid foundation for the technological development in Nigeria

 

Low Cost Greenhouse Technology for Vegetable Production in Nigeria

Low Cost Greenhouse Technology for Vegetable Production in Nigeria

A greenhouse is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of transparent material, such as glass or plastic materials in which plants requiring regulated climatic conditions are grown. These structures range in size from small sheds to industrial-sized buildings. The interior of a greenhouse exposed to sunlight becomes significantly warmer than the external ambient temperature, protecting its contents in cold weather. The technique of using greenhouse to make crop production under regulated environmental condition is generally called greenhouse technology. Many commercial glass greenhouses have production facilities for vegetables or flowers. The transparent greenhouses are filled with equipment including screening installations, heating, cooling, lighting, and may be controlled by a computer to optimize conditions for plant growth. Greenhouse are heated up because of the incoming solar radiation which warms plants and soil inside the building faster as there is no heat transfer by convection.  The air warmed by the heat from hot interior surfaces is retained in the building by the roof and wall.

Conventionally, greenhouses are equipped with screening installations, heating, cooling, and lighting and may automatically be controlled by a computer system.  The transparent materials used for a greenhouse act as a barrier to air flow and is used for trapping energy, warming the air near the ground and preventing it from rising and flowing away.  Glasshouses are used for growing some crops throughout the year such as lettuce and other vegetables.  Crops are protected against adverse climatic conditions such as wind, cold, dust storms and blizzards, precipitation, excessive radiation, extreme temperatures, insects and diseases.  Light and temperature control allows glasshouses to turn in arable land into cultible land and can be useful for crops production where such crops cannot survive the environmental condition especially in the harsh deserts.  The closed environment of a glasshouse has its own unique requirements, compared with outdoor production, pests and disease infestations and extremes of heat and humidity, are also controlled. Glasshouses are often used for growing vegetables, fruits and flowers. Also, glasshouse production require relatively small amount of area compared with field-grown produce and, the return on investment can be good if the requisite markets can be found. Glasshouse-grown vegetables cannot compete with comparable field-grown crops based on price; therefore, Glasshouse-grown vegetables often are marketed to buyers based on superior quality and off- season availability.

Greenhouse offers golden opportunity to farmers for crops growing  anytime  of the year and make the most use of land. The  greenhouse technology provides plants exactly what they need – a perfect climate, a right amount of sunlight, nutrition, exact amounts of water, carbon dioxide for photosynthesis,  proper ventilation and hostility to pests and diseases. The other benefits are that crops of good quality and higher yield can be grown, water requirement is lower compared to crops grown in open space, while the low labour-intensive method helps in controlling pests and diseases. Farmers can achieve 8 - 10 times yield of crops as compared to the open crop cultivation.

Greenhouse technology, if properly explore, has the potential of at least reducing the deficit in the country’s demand significantly. For instance, a 2013 report from the Central Bank of Nigeria indicated that about N16 billion was spent annually on the importation of tomato paste into the country. The report further revealed that the demand for tomato in Nigeria was estimated at 2.3 million metric tons per annum, while the output was 1.8 million metric tons out of which about 50 percent  was being lost due to lack of good storage facilities and poor developed marketing channels. This implies that 900,000 metric tons was the actual output per annum and that about 1.4 million metric tons is required annually to cover the deficit in the demand. Nigeria is the 13th larger consumer of tomatoes in the world and Nigeria should grow tomatoes to meet the demand of the citizens. This is possible with greenhouse technology, Nigeria can stop importation of tomato especially now that the Dangote tomato processing plant is about taking up at Gafan Tomato market in Kano state.

In Nigeria, the use of greenhouses has been confined to research institutes and tertiary institutions where they are often used for on-going research. Private ownership of greenhouses is not too popular until recent years when Dizengoff West Africa Nigeria, a member of the United Kingdom Balton CP Group and few of the organizations have introduced greenhouse farming system into the Nigerian market. Although, past and present crops of Nigerian leadership  have repeatedly restated  Government commitment to the food security programmes. They have not been able to harness greenhouse farming as one of the many options that have been used elsewhere which could possibly be introduced in the Nigerian environment. As such, greenhouse farming is grossly underutilized/popularized and there is need for government to invest more in this agricultural sector. This will certainly make Nigeria a self sufficient nation in the area of food production especially in areas like Vom in Plateau State. Plateau has been identified as a place where many exotic plants such as Passion fruit, Irish potatoes, Cabbage, Roses, other ornamentals, Turnip and Strawberries can be grown because of the temperate nature of the Jos - plateau climate. However, greenhouse technology can be adopted in every part of Nigeria both in urban and rural areas, which will certainly make the country one of the leading nation in terms of food production.

Greenhouse technology is handy for increase productivity and poverty alleviation but not accessible to many Nigerians because of prohibitive cost. This prohibitive cost of construction and maintenance of the convectional greenhouse is one of the major reasons why many people became aloof to the technology. This is because majority of Nigerian farmers are peasant farmers cannot venture into the business of greenhouse farming without support from government in form of grants and/or subsidy. For instance, the cost of materials and installation of a conventional greenhouse of 24 by 8 square meters, which can contain 480 stands of tomato cost between N1.4 to 1.8 million. Obviously, this astronomical cost makes it discouraging to most Nigerians thereby making the technology unpopular. This teething problem associated with conventional greenhouse made Researchers in National Agricultural Extension Research and Liaison Services (NAERLS), one of the research centres of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria to source for locally made materials to construct the greenhouse.   The feat was achieved and a greenhouse was constructed. Although, not all the materials were locally available but the significant percentage of the materials were locally sourced.  The cost implications of the locally made greenhouse is half the price of the conventional/imported materials of the standard greenhouse. The locally made greenhouse is 30 by 12 m², which can contain 1,056 stands of tomatoes.  The essential materials required for the locally made greenhouse are polyethylene 200 micron 10 meters by 42 meters at average cost of N330,000, insect netting at average cost of N485 per square kilometer, planting bags, trays, organic fertilizer and a set of drip irrigation kits with filter for 16 by 30 m2 greenhouse at average cost of N78,000. The most expensive components of the greenhouse are the polyethylene and drip irrigation kits.  the polyethylene is the transparent material use for covering the greenhouse structure. This material can withstand both mechanical and thermal stresses caused by sunlight and other harsh weather conditions. For now, there is no apparent alternative to this important material. However, alternative is being sought for drip irrigation kits. Already, various perforated sizes of PVC pipes are being tested to serve as lateral line for the drip irrigation system.

Greenhouse technology for vegetable production has bright prospect as a tool for increase food security and income generation to many farmers. This is because vegetables are being produced in all parts of Nigeria. Example in North west and North east; Onion, Tomato and Pepper Tomato, Onion, Pepper Okra, Egg-plant, Amaranthus, Roselle, Pumpkin, Water-melon Carrot, Lettuce are Cabbage being produced.  in North Central;  Pepper, Onion, Tomato, Okra, Amaranthus, Egusi- Melon, Cucumber, Water- Melon, Garlic are Ginger can be produced using the greenhouse technology. In South West, Vegetable crops being produced are  Tomato, Pepper, Okra,  Melon, Amaranthus, Celosia, Corchorus and Egg- plant while in the South East, the crops are Egusi-melon, Okra Amaranthus, Gnetum, Water leaf, Vernonia,  Egg- Plant and Pepper.

In conclusion, the development of low cost greenhouse technology has offered opportunity to the majority of the Nigerian  farming population to enhance their productivity for food security and income generation. Fortunately, NAERLS is ready to partner with relevant agencies to train farmers on the acquisition and management of greenhouse technology. Governments at local, state and federal levels should extend their support to this improved method of crop production. This is way Nigeria may be on path to progress and prosperity.

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