Agriculture
Indiscriminate Use Of Pesticides Worries WAPP
The National Coordina
tor of the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAPP), Prof. Damian Chikwendu, has said that the World Bank assisted agency has unveiled revelations from the Baseline studies (BS) that were carried out in nine states of the federation on the present status of the use, registration and regulation of pesticides in Nigeria.
This, according to him, was in view of the recent death occurrences in the country which were traced down to the use of pesticides.
Giving highlights of the findings last Sunday to newsmen in Abuja, Chikwendu said Nigeria was a home to uncontrolled market of outdated, sub-standard and unscrupulous pesticides which he said were mostly peddled and used by people with no real expertise on them.
Out of a total of 360 farmers that were interviewed in 57 local government areas across the nine states of Abia, Benue, Edo, Gombe, Imo, Kaduna, Kano, Niger and Oyo, the WAPP-Nigeria National Coordinator disclosed that about 92 per cent admitted to the use of pesticides at varying proportions across the states.
This according to him comes with a worrying trend.
“One noticeable trend is that most of the people who sell and use these pesticides have little knowledge of them,” he said.
Citing records from the result of the studies, he stated that not less than 74 per cent of the farmers purchased their products from the open market, adding that only a paltry 8-12 per cent obtained theirs from farmer groups and cooperatives, government agencies and NGOs.
On how the pesticides are used, he said investigations indicated that most of the applications were done by the farmers.
He said a smaller fraction employed the services of hired applicators and farmers’ family members respectively who use knapsack sprayer.
Speaking on why pesticides have been grossly mishandled in the country, Chikwendu said although the National Environmental Standards and Regulation Enforcement Agency (NESREA) was actively involved in ensuring safe use and management of pesticides, its major function of enforcement has been hindered by absence of an enabling national pesticide legislation.
Federal Government and the Ogun State Government, on Wednesday, distributed farm inputs to farmers as part of effort to address food security challenge.
The State Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Toyin Ayo-Ajayi, during the flag-off ceremony of Inputs Redemption Under The National Agricultural Growth Scheme-Agro Pocket (NAGS-AP), in Ogun State, disclosed that beneficiaries of the gesture were primarily rice, maize and cassava farmers across the State.
Ayo-Ajayi commended the Ogun State Government for partnering with the government at the centre for the effort in supporting farmers with inputs that would bring about yieldings for local consumption and likely exportation.
She noted that government is supporting rice, cassava and maize farmers with inputs worth N212,000; N189,000 and N186,000 respectively.
The Permanent Secretary in the State Ministry of Agriculture, Mrs Kehinde Jokotoye, who represented the Commissioner in the Ministry, Bolu Owotomo, stated that traditional farmers are critical in food production, hence the need to encourage and support them with inputs that would bring about desired results during harvesting.
Owotomo said: “Let us make good use of this opportunity, so that the success of this phase will make farmers benefit more from the state and federal governments of Nigeria.”
Earlier, State Coordinator, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Dr. Oluwatoyin Ayo-Ajayi, appreciated the present administration for partnering with the federal government for the initiative, adding that the programme is designed to support farmers at the grassroots level in cassava, rice and maize with inputs such as, seeds, pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, to boost their production and enhance their livelihood.