![IMG_20220118_163751_042.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmZHUi7rLo7rYCbhAa212Mn1Kd9xE8eK2yozyTR3jJfZzx/IMG_20220118_163751_042.jpg)



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Hello my wonderful friends. how are you all doing? You are welcome to another great week. I just came across this contest while going thru @disconnect post and I found the topic very interesting.



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**Introduction**

Farming is one of the main stay of every economy. It provides an avenue by which food is produced for a nations consumption and stability. In fact, every nation that cannot provide enough food for its citizens is still in the foundation stage of their nation building.

Thus, agriculture is very important in our lives. However, in so many places it is difficult to grow crops or animals without the use of agrochemicals. It has proven to be very beneficial for farmers. However, such use comes with demerits.

So this contest is going to highlight the merits and demerits of using agrochemicals in agriculture.



![IMG_20220118_163743_941.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmdarDgcLRE9e3cLzLHrQLW6oDUWSTUQQUWPnaNnTn5Fue/IMG_20220118_163743_941.jpg)



![greenery.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmRvL95mUQPFrr1ic5zn42RztiuZjvRdq264Md2vyuHG4z/greenery.png)



**Merits of using agrochemicals in agriculture**

● **The use of agrochemicals have led to higher crop yields and higher crop quality.**

There are some farmlands that are already turned to wasteland due to consistent usage the farmland. The land have lost most of the nutrients needed to make  crops  yield well. So the use of the appropriate agrochemical can help to resuscitate the farmland, improving yield of the crops as well as its quality.

● **Food production for larger population**

The use of agrochemicals have led to higher food production. With it, small agricultural producers can produce food for a much larger non-agricultural population. 

● **Reduced cost of farming**

Using agrochemicals helps to reduce cost of labour during farming. With this, the overall cost of production for the produce is reduced. Thus making the produce affordable in the market.

**Demerits of using agrochemicals in farming**

●*Resistant Pest are Created*

When agrochemicals are used extensively, the pest will grow resistant ones rendering the pesticide useless. Thus there will be need to go to the laboratory to produce effective chemical that will fight the resistant pest again. This cost so much resources both financially and time spent to do so. Most at times, these resistant pest are more deadly to plants than there predecessors.

● *Soil and Water contamination*

The extensive use of these chemical have led to the poisoning of soil and ground water. The soil will become unproductive, such that without the use of those synthesizers, there would be no good crop yield.  This is exactly what is happening in my village, where, if a farmer is to have a successful planting season, he must apply fertilizer. However, this fertilizer is very expensive and not all can afford it. A bag of 50kg fertilizer in my place is N12000, which is about 54 steem coin at the current rate. So many of these peasant farmers cannot even afford such.

● *Health Hazards*

The use of agrochemicals poses health risks both to the ones that apply it on the farmland and those that consume the farm produce.

 To those who apply it,  ingestion and inhalation of the  chemical substances might occur which can cause internal health damage. Sometimes too, there will be serious irritation on the body which is usually very uncomfortable.

Additionally, consumption of chemically synthesized foods leads accumulation of toxic and deadly substances in the body. Most of these chemical does not fully decompose and are absorbed by the farm produce. This is why on the label of some food items, you will see the inscription *No synthesizer used*. This have also been the cause of so many disease which were not known when the farmlands were very productive.




![lack.png](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmZ4s5thRmAJCCJ3519DD56jFdvNAz1nWeZUussEUD3F5B/lack.png)



**Recommendations**

We can see the use of agrochemicals have both demerits and merits. Both should be considered seriously before a consensus can be reached.

Personally, I would recommend that more farmlands be made available to farmers, so that a particular land can be left for some years to recover from lost nutrients.

Secondly, the farmers can also apply crop rotation system of farming since each crop require different nutrients. This will allow the land to recover from lost nutrients from a particular type of crop at any point in time.

Using organic manure to replace nutrients in the soil can also help a lot in reducing the environmental hazardous effects of using agrochemicals.

Thanks so much for organizing this contest.


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