Oyeniran Michael

Imagine pouring a massive mountain of salt onto one tiny plate of food. You wouldn’t eat that. So why are many farmers still doing the same thing to their crops with fertilizer? The 14-year-old method of blindly throwing fertilizer everywhere is officially outdated. Nigeria’s new 2026 Harmonised Fertiliser Recommendations manual is basically saying: “Stop feeding your crops blindly.” Thread 👇🏽 1️⃣ Too much fertilizer can damage crops the same way too much salt destroys food. Many farmers believe: “More fertilizer = more yield.” Not always. Too much fertilizer can: • Burn crops • Damage soil health • Waste money • Reduce efficiency Your soil is like the human body. Different soils need different nutrients in different amounts. A cassava farm in Ogun will not behave the same way as maize in Kaduna. Same fertilizer. Different outcome. 2️⃣ Blanket application is one of the biggest expensive mistakes in Nigerian agriculture. For years, many farmers were taught: “Just apply 4 bags per hectare.” But nobody asked: • What type of soil? • What crop variety? • What rainfall pattern? • What nutrient is already present? That’s like giving everybody the same drug without diagnosis. The new recommendation system pushes smarter fertilizer use through the 4Rs: ✅ Right Source ✅ Right Rate ✅ Right Time ✅ Right Place Not random broadcasting anymore. 3️⃣ The best part? The manual is becoming more practical for local farmers. Instead of only speaking “scientific English” like kilograms per hectare, recommendations are now easier to relate with using bag systems and practical field application methods. Because Nigerian farmers calculate with: • Bags • Paint buckets • Ridges • Plots Not laboratory language. Smart farming is not about pouring more fertilizer. It’s about understanding what your soil actually needs.

Most people don't know that the egg they eat every morning and a seedless tomato from a greenhouse are basically going through the same process. A layer hen will produce eggs with or without a rooster. The egg is there, it looks normal, you can eat it, but because there was no rooster there was no fertilization so that egg can never become a chick. No fertilization, no development beyond just an egg. Same thing with greenhouse tomatoes. When heat stress disrupts pollination the farmer applies fruit set hormones to keep the fruit developing. The tomato grows, looks normal, you can eat it, but because fertilization didn't happen properly there is no seed or very few seeds inside. One had no rooster. One had no proper pollination. Both still produced something you can eat. Both missed the fertilization step. Nature does this. Agriculture works with it. So the next time someone online is shouting about seedless tomatoes being unnatural just remind them they eat unfertilized eggs every single day without a second thought.

COW BONES 🦴

Instead of focusing only on “Cow Bone Exportation to China,” Let me help you understand a few things about the “Duty-Free Policy on Agro Commodities.”

Instead of focusing only on “Cow Bone Exportation to China,” Let me help you understand a few things about the “Duty-Free Policy on Agro Commodities.”