Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Harmful Pesticides and How Smallholder Women Farmers Can Do
Harmful Pesticides and How Smallholder Women Farmers Can Do
Impact of pesticides
Bitter Harvest: Real Story from Nigerian farms to German Labs – Time Magazine (subscriber Exclusive)
Double Standard and Unheeding minds: EU export of their ban pesticide to poor countries and her rejection of
the grown outcome.
Thank you
Reference.
What is Pesticide and Why Should we Reduce our Dependence on Them?
Pesticides (from Latin pestis = pestilence, -cida = -killing). Pesticides helped to double wheat
production worldwide between 1969 and 2007. A substance made by humans to take and give life,
it penetrates the smallest particles of the organism of both plants and insects. Often the scientist
themselves are not yet fully aware of exactly how they kill.
"Chemical fertilizers and pesticides may be suitable for plants for a while. At first, yields will
start to increase a lot. The problem is that in the end they kill the micro-organisms that plants,
crops, need to grow. So the soils get poorer and in the long run, they'll end up being less and less
productive,"
Women are the main drivers of agriculture in Nigeria and maybe the World, but due to unawareness
of pesticide risks, the unavailability and unaffordability of personal protection for pesticides and
poor knowledge of organic and agroecological practices, they typically depend on pesticide and
suffer the risk associated with its use.
Worldwide, the number of pesticide poisonings is increasing dramatically. The World Health
Organization estimates that 385 million farmers fell victim to acute poisoning in 2019 –
most of them in Asia and Africa. Of the total of 860 million farmers worldwide, almost half are
poisoned each year.
In 2008 Bekwarra LGA of Cross River State, 122 people suffered from food poisoning due to ingestion of moi-moi
and beans with high pesticide residue. A total of 112 people were hospitalised and the deaths of two children were
recorded. Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) then banned the sale
and supply of 30 agrochemical products in 2008. The then Director General of NAFDAC Dr. Dora Akunyili, said that the
ban became necessary when it was discovered that the pesticides were causing food poisoning that had resulted in
multiple deaths after consumers had eaten food crops with high levels the chemicals.
In January 2020, the people of Oye-Obi in Benue State began to die from a mysterious disease. The mass deaths
continued for almost four months, and 273 residents of the village lost their lives. A conspicuous number of
children and young people were among them. Unofficially, however, doctors who were members of the commission
said –We suspect that the people died from very high pesticide concentrations in the river, their only source of
drinking water.
The Oyongo River is the source of the water with which many people fatally poisoned themselves. © Andy Spyra
Lab results from samples collected from Nigeria and analyses in a German Laboratory
1) Bauchi. The pesticide that the small farmers suffered from, product name Butashi, with the active
ingredient butachlor, is suspected of being carcinogenic.
2) Oye-Obi. No findings in the river water, possibly because little spraying took place during the period
research was conducted. Wax of a wild honeycomb in which insecticides accumulate: Imidacloprid from
Bayer WAS discovered. The active ingredient triggers diarrhea and vomiting in cases of acute poisoning.
Imidacloprid is no longer permitted in the EU.
In samples of fish, dried food, massively elevated levels of Endosulfan, an insecticide was present. This has
been banned in Germany since 1991. May cause developmental disorders in fetuses. Developed and
manufactured by Bayer until 2007, since then it has been produced by other companies in India.
3) Gyawana. Wax of a wild honeycomb: high levels of Dichlorvos, insecticide, damaging to reproduction,
possibly carcinogenic. Dichlorvos is Banned in the EU. High levels of imidacloprid, evidence of atrazine,
butachlor and pendimethalin were found in a water sample from a private well in the village: unremarkable.
Water from the canal the village uses for washing and bathing and which supplies the drinking water wells of
20,000 people via groundwater as high levels of atrazine. Atrazine is a herbicide that is believed to cause
miscarriages and reduce fertility, possibly carcinogenic.
More Findings: Survey on Pesticide Use and Regulation in
Nigeria.
https://ng.boell.org/en/2021/02/17/time-detox-
agriculture
https://ng.boell.org/en/2021/11/01/time-detox-
agriculture
60% percent of the pesticides (e.g. atrazine, carbofuran,
diazinon) detected in the vegetables have been
withdrawn from sale in Europe. This is partly due to the
adoption of stricter regulations during the last two
decades.
Nigeria has adopted the European Union’s standard of maximum residue levels (MRLs)
tolerated in or on food. However, it is widely recognized that the country has trouble
adhering to these, which directly impacts its export opportunities.
Human health threat in Nigerian Market
25% of registered pesticide products in Nigeria have been proven to be carcinogenic (that promotes
carcinogenesis, the formation of cancer. This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic
processes.),
63 to be mutagenic (it can permanently changes genetic material, usually DNA, in an organism and thus increases the frequency
of mutations above the natural background level),
47 are endocrine-disrupting chemicals (Endocrine disruptors, sometimes also referred to as hormonally active agents,
endocrine disrupting chemicals, or endocrine disrupting compounds are chemicals that can interfere with endocrine systems. These
disruptions can cause cancerous tumors, birth defects, and other developmental disorders),
262 products show neurotoxicity (when the exposure to natural or manmade toxic substances (neurotoxicants) alters the normal
activity of the nervous system. This can eventually disrupt or even kill neurons, key cells that transmit and process signals in the brain and
other parts of the nervous system) and
Number of products showing the probability of chronic health effects according to the classification in Table 1, based on PPDB data.
Atrazine,
Butashi/butachlor
Carbofuran,
Chlorpyrifos
Diazinon
Dichlorvos
1,3-dichloropropene
Endosulfan
Glysophate***
Imidacloprid
Mancozeb
Pendimethalin
Paraquat, etc.
Not
Available
Available
DOUBLE STANDARD & UNHEEDING MINDS: Pesticides Ban in EU & USA are exported to Africa and other Developing
Nations: Food export from Nigeria to EU & USA is rejected due to Pesticide.
Mitigation measures
Shift to the use of nature based alternative farm methods; training on organic traditional methods of
pest controls, use of bio-pesticide, use and promotion of agroecology – multiple farming.
Connect to agroecology and organic farm practitioners within and outside your locality to build
knowledge of these nature based solution for better knowledge and training of members.
Call on the government and agricultural credit facility providers to provide your members bio-
pesticide in place of synthetic pesticides, and provide training on agroecology and organic
agriculture.
At least 99.9% of the farm inputs are generated on the farm. No chemical fertilizers
or pesticides are used on the farm. The farm operates a circular ecosystem
system with zero waste; returning more into nature, than taking out.
Visit the Yangoje Agroecology farm in Kwali abuja
No chemical fertilizers
or pesticides are used
on the farm.
No chemical fertilizers or pesticides are used on the farm.
Thank you
Appendix
Regulation/Directive (Regulatory Decision excluding
Pesticides banned or
Substance Use limitation
substance from Annex I of Directive 91/414)
Acephate Ban 03/219/EEC
1,2-Dibromoethane Ban 79/117/EEC
Out 07/03
essential use 2076/2002
Rainforest Alliance - LIST OF BANNED PESTICIDES AND PESTICIDES WATCHLIST (Version 1.0): utz.org
Time for a “Detox” in Agriculture: Pesticide Use in Four States in Nigeria. Published by: Heinrich Böll Foundation
Abuja Office in collaboration with Trade Network Initiative Release date: October 2021
Time for a “Detox” in Agriculture: Challenges of Pesticide Use and Regulation in Nigeria and Possible Solutions.
Published by: Heinrich Böll Foundation Abuja Office Release date: December 2020
THE REPORT: Tour to Yangoji Agroecological Farm in Kwali Abuja. Pathways towards Sustainable Agriculture in
Nigeria Date: 30 July 2021
Presentations from Dr Silke Bollmohr - Lead Scientist & Managing Director at EcoTrac Consulting
Presentations from Mr Roland Frutig, Co-initiator of the Project, Be the Help Foundation - Agroforestry Training
Center, Kwali- Abuja.