Agro-chemicals: Nigerians are in trouble

Health and agriculture experts have in recent times expressed concern over the increasing use of banned agro-chemicals in the country’s food production sector. The situation became more disturbing when the European Union (EU) suspended some agricultural food exports from Nigeria. The food items banned from Europe till June 2016 are beans, sesame seeds, melon seeds, dried fish and meat, peanut chips and palm oil.
According to the European Food Safety Authority, the rejected beans were found to contain between 0.03mg/kg to 4.6mg/kg of dichlorvos pesticide even though the acceptable maximum residue limit is 0.01mg/kg. The embargo, of course, is a reflection of our inability as a nation to adhere to global standards, which has come to haunt us at the international level.
The ban did not just happen by chance. The EU for some time has been warning Nigeria that the items constitute danger to human health because they “contain a high level of unauthorised pesticide” usually applied when the commodities are being prepared for export. While the United Kingdom issued 13 border rejection alerts to Nigerian beans exporters between January and June 2015, the EU has issued 50 notifications since January 2013.
Instead of addressing the situation after receiving the rejection alerts, it was left to worsen. In 2013 for instance, 24 commodities of Nigerian origin exported to the UK were rejected. The figure rose to 42 food items in 2014. Some of them were said to have been contaminated by aflatoxins; making them unfit for consumption.
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has evidently failed to live up to its regulatory oversight. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture has equally not given enough attention to finding a solution to the problem. Peasant farmers generally lack basic knowledge on the appropriate application of agro-chemicals as well as the consequences of their abuse or misuse on human health. Exporters who, perhaps, have some knowledge of agro-chemicals over-apply (or misapply) them on food products for economic reasons.
Beyond the ban placed on Nigerian food items by the EU is the huge risk which the health of millions of Nigerians is exposed to. We have become so lackadaisical that aside from failing to comply with international standards on food exports, relevant agencies in the country (unlike the EU) have equally become so flippant to the extent of ignoring their statutory duties of ensuring that food imported into Nigeria are safe for human consumption.
How safe then, if one may ask, are the foods imported into the country, including fruits (such as apple, grapes, avocado, etc) and canned meals? Second, to what extent does the preservation of Nigerian-grown foods with agro-chemicals meet up with the standards defined by health and agricultural experts?
The response to these two questions shall in the next few paragraphs highlight the dangers posed by the sheer negligence of responsibilities among government officials (including agricultural extension workers, NAFDAC officials and customs officers) to the health of Nigerians as well as the environment.
We cannot be too sure if the semi-processed poultry products and meat imported into the country are not poisonous enough to harm Nigerian consumers. Toxic chemicals and solvents are allegedly used in preserving the products which are sold after shipment into Nigeria at cheap prices.
A former minister of agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, had to personally order the destruction in March 2014 of a large consignment of contaminated imported frozen fish stored in a warehouse operated by Indians in Lagos. Is it that there are no customs men and NAFDAC officials at our seaports again?
The cultivation, harvest and preservation of the crops produced in Nigerian are also not free from the abuse of agro-chemicals on them. Some of the agro-chemicals which have been banned by government but yet find their way in to the country and used by farmers include chordane, captafol, toxaphene and parathione. They are used by farmers to control weeds and pests. Apart from contaminating the produce, residues that accumulate from their application on crops over time have harmful effects on the soil. Because the sale of expired agro-chemicals is also not checked, traders face no challenges from relevant agencies in advertising and selling them to farmers who apply them on crops in excess; to make them work as if they were a fresh supply.
We have heard of instances where an entire family died in their sleep after eating beans as their evening meal; allegedly due to the effect of the chemicals used in preserving the produce. Rather than also using safe methods of fishing, fishermen have similarly resorted to using Gammalin 20 to harvest fishes when they are afloat on the river after dying from the effect of chemicals. Manganese-dioxide (i.e. the powder of dry-cell batteries) is also known to be used by local farmers and traders to hasten the maturity or ripeness of harvested bananas and plantains. With their negative effects on human health, these toxic or poisonous food items freely find their way into our markets in villages and cities. It is further saddening that some of these agro-chemicals are now been used as insect repellents in our homes. Nigerians are really in trouble!
Medical experts have warned that the abuse of agro-chemicals can cause cancer, miscarriage in women, congenital effects in unborn babies, neuro-behavioural disorders, reduction in the sperm count of men, and acute attack in asthmatic patients. Worst is the death that could result from the misuse of these agro-chemicals, especially the banned products.
In a 2015 report, the World Health Organisation mentioned that “Food contaminants, such as harmful parasites, bacteria, viruses or radioactive substances, cause more than 200 disease;” adding that unsafe food is linked to the death of about 2 million people annually.
The Federal Ministry of Health, the Nigerian Environmental Standards and Regulatory Agency (NESREA), NAFDAC; and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria must all sit up to ensure that food items imported into the country as well as those produced in Nigeria are safe for human consumption. May Allah (SWT) protect use against all harmful food items and substances, amin.