A Peep into the Problems of Environmental Pollution that pose Constraints to Sustainability of Agriculture in Nigeria
Babajide A. Matanmi
Post Office Box 1039, Obafemi Awolowo University,
Ile – Ife, Nigeria.
Abstract
Since the Stockholm Conference on the Environment in 1972, concern for the environment and protection of its quality has been an important issue in international policy and the affairs of man. However, in Nigeria, deforestation and habitat changes have continued to cause severe erosion, desertification, land degradation and declining biodiversity etc. Thus forests which hitherto protected the soil, provided needed biological resources, social benefits, and environmental services, are fizzling out steadily, lands are drying out, flooding has become more frequent and devastating owing to the onset of Global Warming, and the complex problems of Oil Spills, continuous Gas Flaring in Crude Oil-producing areas, Green House Gases, etc. continue to stare us in the face. For more than 2 decades now, the Nigerian nation has been grappling with the task of food security, food efficiency, public health issues, scarcity of industrial raw materials, and the detrimental side-effects of her agricultural development. This paper discusses the causative factors of the resulting dangerous trend, and proffers some solutions to the nagging problems, in order for Nigeria to achieve sustainable development which aims at accelerating agricultural and economic development, and yet conserve and enhance her stock of environmental, human, and physical capital without extremely negative consequences to future generations.