The General Manager Kaduna Agricultural Development Agency (KADA), Muhammad Rili, has raised fresh concerns over the heavy economic and health losses linked to Nigeria’s prolonged failure to meet global food safety standards, particularly in the production and export of dried beans.
Rili spoke with journalists at the close of the National Summit on Agroecology and Public Private Partnerships on Agroecology in Lagos, where stakeholders revealed that the nation is forfeiting between 362.5 million USD and 363 million USD every year in foreign exchange.
The loss is tied to the long-standing international suspension placed on Nigerian dried beans, especially by the European Union.
According to the summit, the ban first introduced in 2015 followed repeated detection of extremely high amounts of the pesticide Dichlorvos in exported beans.
The chemical, widely used by local farmers and traders to protect beans from pests, has been outlawed in the European Union since 2006 because of its well documented dangers to human health.
Rili warned that the continued dependence on highly hazardous pesticides, many of which are already prohibited in advanced economies, exposes both farmers and consumers to serious short and long-term medical risks.
Participants at the summit highlighted the global imbalance in pesticide related fatalities. Although developing countries account for only a quarter of the pesticides used worldwide, they record ninety nine percent of the deaths linked to poisoning.
Research referenced at the meeting noted that the World Health Organization estimated that three hundred and 85 million farmers suffered acute pesticide poisoning in 2019, most of them in Africa and Asia.
The summit also drew attention to the experiences of small-scale women farmers. 75% of those surveyed in 2022 reported health complications they attributed to highly hazardous pesticides.
The most common symptoms were breathing difficulties, dizziness, headaches, nausea, vomiting, eye irritation, skin reactions, persistent catarrh, diarrhoea and respiratory distress.
Beyond health concerns, the gathering examined budgetary provisions for agroecology, biodiversity and climate resilience in the 2025 fiscal plan. Stakeholders criticised the placement of major funds under the Presidency and the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
They argued that such allocations should rightly belong to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the Federal Ministry of Environment to ensure proper supervision and effective delivery.
Although overall budgetary support for states and key agencies in agroecology has risen steadily from 2020 to 2024, the communiqué noted that the actual activities captured in these plans have not matched the scale of financial commitments.
To change the current trajectory, the summit called on federal and state governments as well as their legislatures to significantly increase annual investment in agroecology and extension services.
They insisted that early consideration, timely passage and complete release of approved budgets remain vital to raising food output, reducing hunger and poverty and strengthening national food and nutrition security.
The communiqué further advised governments to immediately begin protecting and promoting Nigeria’s indigenous seeds, seedlings and livestock varieties as a way to safeguard agro biodiversity.
It proposed a nationwide network of Community Seed Banks to preserve and regenerate local seeds and animal breeds, while also serving as centres for participatory breeding and innovation aimed at improving quality, boosting climate resilience and ensuring long term genetic conservation.
