The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has announced stricter measures to curtail the use of Sniper (Dichlorvos or 2,2-dichlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate) in homes to end the abuse of the pesticide which in recent times has been associated with suicide in Nigeria.
The director of veterinary medicine and allied products directorate at NAFDAC, Dr. Husman Bukar, disclosed this today in Ibadan at the launch of a herbicide produced by United Phosphorous Limited in collaboration with UPL, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Springfield Agro Company, Lagos.
“Recently, some suicide cases have been associated with people drinking Sniper. Henceforth, we call on the agro-chemical industry to enhance their distribution channels so that this product (Sniper) gets to only accredited distributors and marketers.
“We have also placed a ban on the manufacture of smaller packs of Sniper which are easily purchased for household use,” he said.
In addition, he said the agency would soon ban the use of Paraquat and Atrazine products by farmers.
Bukar said NAFDAC would present evidence that the products hurt applicators and the environment.
He also said the decision was coming at a time when new herbicides that were safer and environmentally-friendly were being registered in Nigeria.
“A date for the ban has not been announced but it will happen very soon. Paraquat has been banned in several countries and we cannot continue to allow it to come into Nigeria,” he said.
“On the use of glyphosate by farmers, NAFDAC has placed a ban on glyphosate-based formulations with tallow-amine (an emulsifier and wetting agent for agrochemical formulations.
“Agrochemical companies have been given the grace period of between now and December 2019 to withdraw all glyphosate formulations with tallow-amine from the Nigerian market,” he said.
