Organic foods have more beneficial nutrients to the human body than inorganic ones, an agronomist, Mr Daniel Baisie has said.
He has therefore urged Ghanaians to consume more organic foods than non-organic for better health.
Mr Baisie said this on last Wednesday in Accra in an interview with the Ghanaian Times on the importance of organic foods to the human body.
He said inorganic foods were food items that had utilized synthetic products such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides in their production while organic foods were food substance which were produced only through naturalfarming method in which natural fertilizers were used to improve plant growth.
He explained that the type of food consumed has a lasting effect on human health thereby alluding that rural folks seems to more healthier that people living in urban areas because the former consumes more of organic products.
He said the use of inorganic fertilizers on farms tend to have a negative effect on farm yields though helps give farmers plenty yields.
Mr Baisie who is also the Country Director for Eco Index Agro Solutions Limited said nitrogen was an essential nutrient for plant growth explaining that "plants can absorb only 0.5 to three per cent nitrogen, anything more than thatwould make the plants weak, leaving them susceptible to fungal attack and pest pressure."
He explained that the earth's atmosphere was made up of 78 per cent of nitrogen which was equivalent to about 74,000 tonnes of nitrogen adding that it was not available to plants because it in a gaseous state.
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Mr Baisie said plants take nitrogen in the form of nitrate and ammonium adding that too much of it would lead to leaching in soils with very poor structure and texture.
"Nitrate in plants can be detrimental in high levels as they encourage vegetative growth at the cost of reproductive growth," he added.
The Country Director of Eco Index Agro Solutions Limited said excess nitrate were being washed from the soil into water bodies leading to their contamination which was dangerous to animal and human health.
He therefore called on Ghanaians to desist from inorganic foods such as pre-cooked or ready-to-cook meals, processed foods, baked and frozen foods adding that "let us eat food substances produced here in Ghana.
He also urged farmers to ensure they use organic methods in their farming activities saying it was only through that they can produce healthy food stuffs for their families and Ghanaians at large.
