Professor Lami Nnamonu, a senior lecturer at Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi, Benue State, has said the wrong use of pesticides and preservatives by farmers stemmed from the failure of regulatory agencies from doing due diligence to all established Chemical use laws was costing the Nigeria foreign exchange.
The university lecturer spoke in Port Harcourt at a one-day Capacity Building and Empowerment on the use of Chemical Substances for Vulnerable Women and Youths organised by Institute of Chartered Chemists of Nigeria (ICCON) and the National Assembly.
She expressed regret that agricultural products from Nigeria are being rejected in European and American countries over poor use of Chemicals by farmers, noting that pesticide residues were recurring incidents causing food poisoning in the country, adding that misuse, abuse and wrong application of chemicals are on the rise in the country.
Nnamonu said farm products from the country have been reported to have Maximum Residue Limit, MRL, above the World Health Organiosation, WHO’s, recommendation, adding that the development was because the farmers are not monitored and educated on chemical usage.
“Whenever our produce gets there, they test them for these pesticides and they discover high level of pesticides residues. There are limits that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has set Maximum Residue Limit (MRL), you discover that this pesticides residue in our food are higher than the MRL, and they just send them back.
“We produce a lot of Yam in Benue State and there was a franchise to export our yam to Europe and Americas but at the point of checking they discovered that our yam has pesticide residues at levels higher than the MRL.
“Government knows this. They should wake up to their responsibilities. They are interested in self, me, myself and I and nobody cares about the common good and they do not worry about what is happening in the country.”
She urged regulatory agencies and the government to address the very concern, stating that there was low level of implementation of laws and monitoring of farmers.
“Let them implement and monitor the compliance of farmers because these farmers are largely uneducated, all they want is improved yields and they do not care about what the people eat but just to get bumper harvest. If the regulatory bodies are there, they will make sure that the right thing is done,” she added.
Nigeria farmers need more education on the application of different pesticides/insecticides and herbicides not only to meet foreign needs, but also for our own health.
Unfortunately, while they care for the health of their citizens, we care less about ours over here. It is all about profit.