Farmers in Niger are using dangerous, black market pesticides in unregulated quantities, with little impact on agricultural yield but with potentially severe health consequences, say experts.
“In Maradi Region [central Niger], what you discover is that farmers have no fear. It’s horrific. They know the pesticides they are using are dangerous, but they still won’t take the precautions to protect themselves,” said James Litzinger, a pesticide expert and agricultural consultant who is assessing pesticide usage for an NGO in Maradi.
“They don’t die immediately from the pesticides, so they don’t worry. They, like farmers in Nepal and elsewhere, want to see the pest die directly after they spray – that takes some very strong materials.”
The pesticides he saw in wide use in Maradi Region were organophosphates. First developed as insecticides, this class of chemicals was mass produced (though not widely used) as chemical warfare agents in Germany in the 1940s. Known as nerve gases, they have been used in several wars since, including in Vietnam and the Iran-Iraq conflict. They are among the most widely used insecticides in the world. Although they are heavily regulated by the European Union and the US Environmental Protection Agency, their use often goes unchecked in the developing world.
Niger registers low on the pesticide use database, but that is no reflection of reality.
Manou Bagué, head of the agriculture department that employs personnel to monitor pesticide use, said the ministry does not have enough agents in place to survey each region.
Control posts have been set up at borders to detect the kinds of and amounts of pesticides arriving, and to curtail entry of banned products such as endosulfan or paraquate, but “lots of types of products cross our borders without control,” due to porous borders, he told IRIN.
Illegal substances
On farms outside the capital, Niamey, the most frequently used pesticides are Lambda, malatium, Demontor, Califone, DD Force (Pia-Pia) and Furadan, farmers told IRIN. Some come from the capital, others from Nigeria or from China via Nigeria – especially Lambda – said farmer Souley Amadou.
