It was all joy for the women group of the Redeemed Christian Church of God Amafor Isingwu, Umuahia North, Abia State when Prof Mabel Ifeoma Onwuka fulfilled her promise of donating a pyrolysis drum for the production of biochar to them.
Prof. Mabel Ifeoma Onwuka (Left) presenting Pyrolysis drum to the Amafor Isingwu women, in Umuahia recently.
In her lecture at the event, held in Umuahia recently, she explained that:
“Biochar is an organic and eco-friendly fertilizer produced from waste materials known as feedstocks. These waste materials include agricultural waste such crop residues, animal wastes, shells, rice husk and saw dust etc. that are nuisances to our environment, if not recycled. They are converted into healthy nutrient for crops growth and yield. Apart from increasing the crop growth, biochar has been found to reduce soil acidity, increase soil nutrients such as phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, potassium and organic carbon, a good remediate of heavy metals and increase soil microorganism.
“Applying biochar to the degraded soils of the Southeast Nigeria, which are mostly acidic have resulted to increase crop yields and management of the soil. Prof Onwuka stated this why demonstrating to the women how to produce biochar using the pyrolysis drum. The drum according to her works on the principle of charring the waste materials under intense heat and limited oxygen.
“The limited oxygen eliminates the production of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas), which is not one of the gaseous products of the pyrolysis unit.
Mabel Onwuka who is founder of Hope for Farmer, Women and Girls Initiative (HOFWGI) and the Director, Center for Gender, Youth and Child Development ( CGYCD), emphasized that the smallholder women farmers play significant roles in crop production in Nigeria and Africa, hence they must be encouraged especially now that mineral or inorganic fertilizers are very costly and out of the reach of the resource- poor farmers.
Commenting on the effectiveness of the biochar fertilizer, Mrs. Ijeoma Ehiogu of Amafor Isingwu said that the biochar that was freely given to them by Prof Mabel, during the 2023 International Day of Rural Women, was utilized by her to plant ginger. She testified that the yield she got was about 300 per cent more than the previous years’ yields, she normally get. She further stated that after taking the much ginger her family needed for the year, she sold the surplus and made a profit of N15,000.00k which she has never made from ginger ever since she started growing ginger four year ago.
In her remarks, the leader of the group Mrs. Sarah Ndubuisi-Nmerifo thanked Prof. Onwuka and her team for visiting their group. She praised her for keeping to her promise of donating a pyrolysis drum to them after she won the 2023 Prize for Women’s Creativity in Rural Life by Women’s World Summit Foundation, Geneva, Switzerland. She urged the women to avail themselves the opportunity of producing their own organic fertilizer, utilizing and marking them to get more income to improve their families’ finances.
