A coalition of leading experts in the areas of agriculture, environments and toxins have called on the federal government to strengthen the way it regulates the use of herbicides in the country.
The call was against the backdrop of a research conducted on paraquat, a widely used herbicide in Nigeria, which revealed that its toxicity is injurious to human and environmental health.
Speaking on behalf of Coalition Against Paraquat (CAP) at a meeting in Abuja on Monday night, a professor of Agricultural Processing and Storage from Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Simon V. Irtwange, said about 167 literatures from leading scientists from across the world have confirmed that the herbicide is injurious to human life, hazardous to aquatic life, exacerbates environmental degradation, causes pollution, and endangers the sustainability of the ecosystem.
He noted that many countries have banned or de-registered it but it is still widely used by Nigerian farmers, because it kills weeds in a matter of hours.
CAP, therefore, “strongly recommended that the Federal Republic of Nigeria through the appropriate agency (NAFDAC) de-register the importation and prohibit the distribution, sale, and use of Paraquat in Nigeria. This is based on research and science-based evidence that PQ is dangerous to human health and hazardous to the environment.”
In his remark, Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, stressed that even though Nigeria ought to grow enough food to become self-reliant, the herbicides that should be used by farmers must be safe and friendly to the environment.
He assured the coalition that he would make sure the national assembly puts in place appropriate legislation that would remove paraquat and other harmful herbicides from Nigerian markets.
