Food Safety: NAFDAC Bans 12 Pesticides, Agrochemicals

Given the toxicity associated with the misuse and abuse of pesticides and the effect on food safety, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) is set to ban and phase-out 12 pesticide and agrochemical active ingredients in the country.

This is in addition to the ban on Paraquat, Chlorpyrifos, and Atrazine with effective dates from 1st January 2024, 1st November 2024, and 1st January 2025 respectively.

The director-general of NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, who disclosed this in a statement, yesterday, said the Agency is also reclassifying four other products.

She said NAFDAC’s mandate, which is to safeguard the health of the nation, “Necessitated the review and analysis of the list of registered pesticide and agrochemical active ingredients in the NAFDAC Registered Product Automated Database (NARPAD) vis-à-vis actives banned, non-approved or restricted in the European Union, other countries or by relevant international organizations.”

Adeyeye said it was agreed at the review meeting that pesticide and agrochemical importers and manufacturers would be advised to institute stewardship plans (such as Post Marketing Surveillance and research) in their companies.

She said, “The dangers posed by pesticides are of immense concern to the agency and there have been recent concerns from stakeholders such as the report of the study conducted by Heinrich Boll Foundation; a non-governmental organisation that claimed that 40 percent of pesticides used in Nigeria had been banned in the EU.

“There was also an alert received from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) cautioning on the possibility that the European Union and United Kingdom were exporting banned Neonicotinoid Pesticides to Nigeria and other Poorer Countries. Emphasis was placed on Chlorpyrifos and its variants due to their harmful effects on humans, animals, beneficial insects, and the environment.”