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By Our Correspondent in Minna
Inadequate number of chemical Engineers to serve farmers’ needs, high cost of engaging experts, especially in rural areas and lack of awareness on how to use chemicals have been identified as factors responsible for increase in abuse of some harmful chemicals used in Nigeria.
Mr. Adam Sam Ukposu, Chief Agricultural Superintendent, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and rural development, disclosed this at the one day Media Roundtable on Micronutrient Deficiency Control (MNDC).
The Reporters reports that the event waz organized by the Partnership for Improving Nigeria Nutrition System (PINNS), in collaboration with the Civil Society-Scaling up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN).
Ukposu described the abuse of chemicals and the danger inherent in such undertaking as worrisome, noting that many harmful chemicals, especially the ones used by farmers had found their way to shelvrs where people for sale and usage in various homes.
He said: “A situation whereby farmers depend so much on chemicals and a near total abandonment of natural manure is responsible for so much chemical that are causing food poisoning,and maybe largely responsible for present day sudden deaths.
“There are people trained in handling different drugs and chemical used on farms or gardens but unfortunately, their services are hardly sought or that they are inadequate.
“That is why today, you see many people engage in spraying chemicals in farms or to control weeds without precautionary measures. Some of them don’t even know the quantity to use.
“It is as a result of these and many more challenges that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture is championing the cause for Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) expected to take care of the numerous hazards associated with the use of chemicals by farmers and non-farmers using chemicals to de-weed their surroundings.”
Ukposu said relevant ministries were trying to discourage farmers from wrong use of chemicals or total dependence on chemicals in their farms, because chemicals and sprays destroy natural habitat and eroding health system as well.
The Executive Secretary CS-SUNN, Mrs. Beatrice Eluaka, had earlier made a strong case for Niger state government to create budget lines for nutrition in ministries with specific sum allocated as intervention fund to promote nutrition among citizens.
She told participants at the which also had the Federal Ministries of Health, as well as Agriculture and Rural Development as partners, that promoting nutrition among Nigerians remained one of the best ways to guarantee healthy life among the citizenry.
Eluaka, however, expressed concern that Governors never considered nutritional benefits of the food palliatives they were sharing.
The executive secretary added that the World Bank Nutrition Country profile for Nigeria also reported that the country lost $1.5 billion annually to Micro-Nutrient Deficiencies, adding that the development was not healthy for the growth and development of the nation.
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