NAFDAC announces gradual phase out of paraquat in Nigeria

The National Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has announced a deregistration plan and eventual phase out of paraquat, a toxic herbicide being used for weed control in Nigeria.

The Director, Veterinary Medicine and Allied Products of NAFDAC, Dr Bukar Usman, made the announcement in a statement on Wednesday in Ibadan.

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Usman said that the agency had concluded the phase out plan for paraquat and had set a deadline for its complete ban.

“Under the plan, NAFDAC has stopped new registration of paraquat and those already in the process can only get two years instead of the usual five years.

“By the end of December, NAFDAC will no longer process renewal of registration of the product, while total ban will be concluded by 2024,” he said.

NAN recalls that recently, there had been a barrage of calls for the ban of the chemical, owing to its reported health and environmental risks.

The most recent call was by commissioners of agriculture, permanent secretaries of agriculture ministries and programme managers of Agricultural Development Programmes (ADPs) in the country.

In a communique issued at the end of a meeting held recently at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, the stakeholders held that the concerns being raised by weed scientists about paraquat were too grave to be ignored.

They maintained that given the availability of safer and environmental- friendly herbicide in the market, NAFDAC should hasten the process of banning the chemical from the Nigerian market.

This, they argued, would safeguard the health of resource-poor farmers and protect the environment in general.

Responding to this, Usman, who, in 2019, confirmed that NAFDAC was working on the ban, said: “NAFDAC has concluded the phase out plan of paraquat.

“No new registration of the products; those already in the process can only get two years instead of five years.

“By the end of December, neither renewal nor those already in the system will be entertained,” he said.
The stakeholders had emphasised that a report authored by a weed scientist at the University of Port Harcourt, Dr Udensi Udensi, described the product as one of the most acute toxic herbicides being marketed in the last 60 years.

They said that the report entitled “Rural Appraisal on the use of Paraquat in Nigeria,” said that the product remained one of the pesticides responsible for more fatal poisonings than any other pesticide substances.

They added that workers, who were exposed to paraquat over a long period, had been found to be at high risk of developing Parkinson’s disease later in life.

“Another study done by Steve Weller, a retired professor of the Purdue University, United States and Charles Riches, a weed scientist and agronomist with Agherba Consultants, corroborated Udensi’s position.

“The report stated that the negative effects of paraquat on humans and its potential for short and long-term negative effects on human health were overwhelmingly strong.

“Alternatives to paraquat that have been found to be safer and equally effective include glyphosate, glufosinate, diphenyl ether, arlyoxyphenoxy-propionate and cyclohexanediones,” they said.

(NAN)