Farmers across the country have been challenged to shift away from using chemical fertilizers, and instead use organic ones.
Churchill Kavole, a sales director at GPC Organic Fertilizer Company says with the negative impacts of chemicals on soil, it was time Kenyans embraced organic farming.
Among the organic fertilizers in the country, today is GPC Fertilizer. The fertilizer is manufactured locally and is available to farmers at the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) depots across the country.
The company has for the last two days pitched camp at the University of Eldoret’s annual Agri-Business Trade Fair, educating and sensitizing farmers on the importance of using organic fertilizers.
“We are asking farmers to focus on using organic fertilizers that do not affect plants and soils,” Kavole told Uasin Gishu News on Friday, September 23, 2022.
High soil acidity
The GPC Fertilizer sales director points out that following the use of chemical fertilizers, farmers have been facing many challenges among them high acidity in their soils, which has affected production.
But with the use of organic fertilizers, can lower soil PH.
“We have been using chemical fertilizers which have effects on the soils but GPC fertilizer reduces soil PH that is favourable to many crops,” Kavole said.
GPC fertilizers are used for both planting and top dressing of all crops across the country.
Aside from the ability to reduce soil acidity, the other benefit of using GPC organic fertilizer is its affordability to the common mwannachi.
“GPC fertilizer is very cheap. A 25-kilogram bag retails at Ksh1,700 and is found at NCPB countrywide,” noted Kavole.
A majority of farmers have also been facing the challenge of many crop diseases, all of these caused by too much use of chemicals including chemical fertilizers.
But as a major step in fighting off the diseases, farmers are now being asked to embrace the use of organic fertilizers.
“In recent years, there has been a rise in diseases due to more use of chemicals in farming and we urge farmers to use organic fertilizer as it has no chemical. The world is moving into organic farming and we need to embrace and support the technology and local companies,” the GPC sales director advises.
