Prof. Oluyemisi Fawole of the Department of Agronomy, University of Ilorin, Kwara State, has advocated investing in climate-smart agriculture to promote soil health and fertility. Fawole made the call in a paper presentation at the 242nd Inaugural Lecture of the university titled: “Intimate Strangers in Soil and Agricultural Sustainability”.
She explained that climate-smart agriculture would help to sequester carbon and decrease greenhouse gas emission. “The emission of greenhouse gases in the environment is increasing at an alarming rate globally. These occur in both natural and artificial ways. The artificial source of carbon dioxide emission occur due to human activities that include emissions from power plants, industries. Other ways include automobiles waste disposal, incineration and burning of fossils”, she said. The Professor also stated that soil is the largest reservoir of carbon, holding about 2.5 times more carbon than the atmosphere holds.