Our agricultural produce is not ban, beans suspension may go by June says NAQS boss

Dr. Vincent Isegbe

The Coordinating Director of Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), Dr. Vincent Isegbe has cleared the improperly checked news on the ban placed on the nation’s agricultural produce by European Union saying the true position was that in less than six months from now the one year suspension placed on beans may be lifted as all other produce are not on any sanction as being reported by many media.

 He added that signing of the harmonization act of NAQS by the President would have enabled her to be more effective and well positioned in a global way to effectively tackle the challenges of sanitary and phyto sanitary of any agricultural produce either raw or semi coming and going out of the country towards ensuring food safety and security for economic empowerment of the stakeholders. Read the excerpts of his interview with us in his office recently.

 

Looking at the Act establishing NASQ, how effective is this to your mandate execution?

NAQS was harmonized in 2007 following the Federal Executive Council’s approval for harmonization of veterinary quarantine services, the plant quarantine and aquatic services in compliance with the world best practices. Based on this, an executive bill was presented to the National Assembly for presentation to the Executive President for signing into an Act in 2010. But the report submission to the President had to be put on hold due to the 48 hours clearing order at the nation’s airport and the Oransanya committee report on rationalization of the government agencies. Eventually the bill was not signed by the President. So are at the status quo using the enabling powers establishing various quarantine services that is the animal diseases Act of 1988 decree 10 of fisheries in land water laws and regulation with the plant Act disease and pest control of the 1959 as reviewed. 

These are the laws we are still using, but the harmonized Act would have been much better as we will become an entity. But presently the National Assembly in its wisdom has reopened the issue because of the relevance of the agency to the agricultural development and international trade in compliance to the world best practice. So if the bill had been signed, we would have become a full fledge agency with a board structure in place. 

Again being an agency will enable us to be apt to taking action to prevent emergency and also be able to plan ahead of time in accordance to our professional conduct and experience towards protecting the country. For example we have to make protection plan ahead of any diseases discovered in any other part of the world. In East Africa, there are maize lethal necrosis disease and cassava brown streak disease which both are not here. But we have gone ahead to make adequate arrangement to sensitize people should it come into the country. This is the work of an agency, our work is to ensure diseased free agricultural produce being exported or imported in raw and semi raw.

What differentiate you from all other affiliated agencies like NAFDAC?

The NAQS if you will permit me to say is an elite call. What I mean by this is that it is so strategic to the survival of every nation because the food production has to be preserved and protected to reflect the strength of a nation. Secondly, diseases coming from the other countries through human traffic or from all other means must be check-mated. For example ebola outbreak did not originate from Nigeria. Somebody brought it. So it is duty of NAQS to prevent any external diseases against agriculture in Nigeria. How do we do this? We are at the major strategic entering points as the country has a long border of 4,000 kilometer long with 857 km at the coastline thereby making it difficult to man all these places but rather to ensure surveillance of the ones with frequent traffic of human. 

We have 52 stations, and more coming. We are at the sea port, airport and several land borders with interstate control post meant to double check any one that escape being detected at the airport or sea port as you must pass through Jebba, Makurdi or Lokoja because the Niger and Benue have cut the country into large north and south. So NAQS are to do the assessment of any request for importation for any particular produce of animal, fishes and crops, and we don’t normally issue permit when there is an issue either here or from the importing country as part of measure to prevent spread of diseases. 

When you come for permit we will do all necessary documentary for laboratory sample either live animals or any other produce one might have brought. And if it is for research or further propagation of planting, we will take it to our seed health unit where is being planted and watch for a particular period of a time at the farm level. Now coming to your question, for NAQS, any agricultural produce, be it raw, and semi process, it is within our porfio to inspect and certify. Any industrial products processed with label and packaged as food items is for NAFDAC. For example some raw beans that were exported to the UK met rejection because there was no quarantine guarantee inspection.

What is your advice to exporters and importers as regard following certification process?

There are rules which we must follow in the process of export and import of raw and semi processed agricultural produce along the value chain of production up to a point of export. It is very important for our people to abide with ethics of food standard for export and import. 

Doing this would mean ensuring that your agricultural produce must be certified by NAQS before you proceed for export. You have to put them in proper containers acceptable in the importing country. Ensuring certification would have helped to checkmate the problem of wither the produce is diseased free and with correct moisture content and all other necessary issues would have properly cross checked to avoid rejection at the port of entry. Also it is very important as it is the perception that leads people to doing things rightly. As a nation, we must agree to always produce our food in sanitary manners.

 Why do I say so? How do we thresh our beans or rice in the open places where it is being exposed to sand and all other bacteria? Sometimes people do not put tarpaulin under this produce for the purpose of preventing them from sand etc. our preservation of produce before export in very important,. Are properly preserved and store with the right chemical that is approved. Our curiosity to always demand sanitary food sold in the market would impact on our importers and exporters’ attitude. And it will become a national collective consciousness decision to checkmate food producers to properly preserved and stored in very hygienic ways. Then a lot of clearing agents always falsify our certification. 

How they do it, I don’t know. But I know many of our certificates have been falsified to many exporters who eventually run into problem. There is a correspondence between us which they can cross chec anytime any certificate we have issued. As solution, we have developed an electronic platform for issue of phto sanitary certificate onling as you can now make your application and process online. All the processes are now done online for faster processing. Now the certificate is computer generated series number and as it is being printed to you, another copy goes straight to the importing country.

What is the true position of all agricultural sanctioned on us for 2016?

Well Nigeria has been placed under suspension, not sanction or ban. Only dry bean is under suspension in Nigeria. In the media people have been writing Nigeria has been suspended for melon, beni seed, sesame seeds etc, but I am using this opportunity to clear the air that it was only beans that was put under suspension for one year which may be lifted in june 31th if all necessary condition are meet. We are working hard towards that and importantly we did not get the European Union alert as it was sent to another agency.

Why?

It was sent to another agency that did not send it to us because of the structure that was put in place then. We did not receive any notification concerning it. The only letter we receive from EU was on 17^th of February 2015, and the letter was written to us directly saying they are contemplating putting Nigerian beans under suspension if we do not correct the high level of dichloruos on them. 

The information added that about 50 alerts have been sent to us between 2012- 2015. Although we told them we cannot be put under suspension since there was no notification before now. More so we have no reason to know that our beans do go there without our certification. Also do not forget the 48 hours airport clearance that made us to leave the port. So because of that we did not know what was happening. Also the EU sent these letters to National Focal Point. 

We complained to EU in our meeting with them on 29^th of October last year and the whole thing has changed and we are already working to ensure the awareness of global standard of preserving our food export for acceptability, and between now and June 31, we are going to meet EU for further brief on how far we have gone to taking proactive steps to ensure phyto sanitary condition for the beans. We have informed the main ministry our intension because it is a national issue and the Minister of Agriculture has been of tremendous help to us. 

There is nothing we have placed on his table that he has not taken very seriously as a grassroot farmer. He has fact about farms and agriculture. We have taken proactive measure on the beans to the extent that we want to know which part of the country our beans is more susceptibility to adulteration or contamination with chemical and the level of the dichloruos around this area and sample has been submitted in the laboratory as we are expecting result with more enlightenment going to our farmers and other stakeholders.