By Umar Dankano Yola.
The Nigerian Export Promotion Council has conducted a one-day capacity building training workshop on good Agricultu ral practices(GAP) and pesticide management for 70 small holder farmers from Demsa and Numan local government areas in Adamawa state.
North East Regional office of the council in Yola collaborated with the Adamawa state Ministry of Commerce,Trade and Industry, and Adamawa Agricultural Development Program (AADP) to train the beneficiaries on best ways to handle pesticides while farming in compliance with relevant standards and regulatory requirements for home and export consumptions.
In her keynote address at the training held in Numan,on Friday, the Executive Director of the Council (NEPC) Mrs Nonye Ayeni said that, the training for small holder farmers was meant for safe handling and appropriate use of pesticides as a component of the NEPC pesticide management project in risk management that seeks to address Nigerian Agricultural export rejects due to pesticide residues.
Represented by the Regional Coordinator of the council, Dr. Ben AnaniAyeni said that the initiative is particularly important in promoting the production of safe and quality agricultural commodities that can meet both domestic and international market requirements.
Ayeni emphasized that the initiative was particularly important in promoting the production of safe and quality agricultural commodities that can meet both domestic and international market requirements.
Ayeni lamented that the continued ban and rejection of Nigerian agricultural produce from the EU and other export market destinations is of grave concern to the Nigerian economy.
“Our agricultural products meant for export markets are facing challenges of rejections at the border control points due to the presence of contaminants such as pesticides residues, mostly dichlorvos and other impurities exceeding maximum permissible residual limit.
“Recent reports indicate that over 70% of small-holder farmers and commercial farms in Nigeria use pesticides as control measures to prevent insects and pest attack on their crops.
“A greater percentage of this is applied at post-harvest level during storage in warehouses prior to export. More so, the farmers and processors have no formal training or guidance on the safe use and appropriate application of pesticides.
“The objective is not simply to share knowledge; the objective is to translate knowledge into improved practices on the farm to enhance productivity and quality”. Ayeni emphasized.
Delivering his address, the Commissioner of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Joab Haggai Sahma expressed gratitude to the NEPC for the timely intervention saying that the Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri’s regime gives the Agriculture sector utmost priority.
Represented by Assistant Director Commerce,Aliyu Yahaya Shehu, chief said Governor Finitri has directed them to organize these programs in all the local governments so that all the farmers would benefit.
“You can see today, farm inputs and equipment will be distributed to small farmers. This is to encourage them to produce more for our own consumption as well as export”.he stressed.
The Extension Agent, Adamawa Agricultural Development Program, Mrs Hajara Adamu in her speech said that the training is very important to any farmer especially with a view adopting organic farming instead which is the best instead of the use of chemicals.
Adamu observed that due to the high use of chemicals in our food crops, that is why we are facing a lot of challenges as a country insisting that With organic farming, everyone will be healthy, the society and the environment will be healthy.
“For export, organic produce is also the best, if we produce our crops organically like soya beans, groundnuts, sesmi seeds among others, and they comply with the good agricultural practices that we taught them, it will go along way in improving the economy and country at large.
“For alternative of using chemicals, we taught them to use neem leafs, paw paw leafs among others which will not destroy the crops or cause any health hazards, instead of using chemicals”.she added.
Responding as beneficiaries of the training, Clara Heman and Babagana Numan described the workshop as apt and timely which enlightened farmers on the steps to follow during his farming, and what he would do to have a bumper harvest.
According to them, the program has given them the opportunity to know that in farming, there are so many things that people do not know about the dangers of continued usage of pesticide on their farms and that adopting organic farming methods remains the best practice.
