Posts
 |
| Abdul-Kazeem Kasimu Bayero |
Abdul-Kazeem Kasimu Bayero is the Director, Pollution
Control and Environmental Health, Federal Ministry of Environment and
also a member of the board of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
Our North Central Bureau Chief, David Ampah had a chat with Bayero and
he spoke on the promotion of sustainable and pollution free agriculture.
Excerpts;
What are your duties as the Director of Pollution Control and Environmental Health?
In that capacity, I have the responsibility to oversee and regulate the activities of the department with regards to ensuring that developmental activities are done in a manner that does not cause pollution beyond the acceptable limits. Our sole responsibility is to promote best practices and best technologies in preventing pollution or managing pollution when it occurs.
How do you go about accomplishing this?
To do this, the department is structured in such a manner that it looks at various problematic areas like solid waste management and liquid management or effluents. We also have environmental health and sanitation and we have chemical management as an area where we ensure that the use of chemicals is done in an environmentally sound manner from cradle to grave; this is from production or import right through handling, transportation, usage and through to disposals . It is a whole life cycle of chemicals. So we have programs and activities to ensure that we limit the hazards and pollution that occur as a result of the handling of the chemicals all through their life cycle for the safety of humans and the environment.
The Agricultural industry is a major industry where chemicals are used: what is your department doing in helping to regulate the use of agrochemicals and promote best practices?
Of course, when we talk about the environmentally sound management of chemicals, it is inclusive of agrochemicals. The use of agrochemicals is a major problem from the stand point of pollution; mishandling has caused a lot of problems both for humans and the environment. We’ve had quite a lot of programs and projects that try to address some of these issues. Some of these programs and projects are actually being implemented under some broader global umbrella because it is a global problem.
There are certain environmental problems that are local and some that are global; the issue of chemicals is considered as a global problem and we have some global arrangement by way of conventions and protocols that are designed to address this. One of them is the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants and agrochemicals very clearly falls under this category. One because the characteristic is that they are persistent in the environment, they travel long distances, they cause cancer and they don’t disintegrate. They have very negative attributes that don’t all go well for the environment and humans.
Nigeria is a signatory to that Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants. There are lots of projects and programs that we have engaged in under that umbrella. Recently, about three to four years ago, we implemented a program called the Management of Africa Stockpile Program on Obsolete Pesticide.
Over the years, because of the misuse and indiscriminate use of these agrochemicals a lot of stocks have accumulated, some in ware houses. Sometimes we even import these chemicals and they are never used, they are just there. Over the years they have been stockpiled so we now put it up as a project under the World Bank and it was funded. All projects under such global arrangements are instigated through implementing agencies and the World Bank was the implementing Agency for obsolete chemicals project.
The main objective of that was to identify where the stockpiles are, quantify them and containerise them for eventual disposal and that was achieved. Right now we have those already containerised in different locations. I’m not very sure of the figures but I think it is about 20-30 tons or so. In Minna, the Niger State capital we have 6 tonness of such obsolete chemicals already containerised.
Are they government or private sector owned?
They are government-owned, they were purchased and not used in different places. Recently we even got a correspondence from an organisation called Crop Life that we have been partnering to ensure the effective management of these pesticides. They are already offering to take these stockpile particularly the 6 tons at Minna because they were involved in the survey and inventory of those pesticides. They have offered to take them abroad for disposal because we don’t have the facilities for that here in Nigeria.
How can the local farmer be assisted to do things right with regards to the use and proper management/handling of these agrochemicals?
During that project, we tried to do some sensitization and create awareness. We provided pamphlets in different Nigerian languages, but it was not widespread because it was a pilot project. The idea is that in the next phase with more funding we will have training programs. Farmers must learn to work with extension officers because in the agricultural sector at different levels you have extension officers. In Zaria for example, we have the National Agricultural Extension Research and Liaison Services (NAERLS) and at state level, we have Agricultural Development Project (ADPs) and they have extension officers. Whether they are being effectively used to reach farmers is another thing; we don’t know the extent to which they are effective.
The other day in Niger State, we went to the place where there has been poisoning from mining and I saw farmers spraying pesticides with no slippers on their feet, no coveralls and no nose masks. This is hazardous and they are exposed to these problems. But more than anything else, the idea of farming without the use of agrochemicals is one thing from our own environmental perspective that we will try to promote. Instead of the use of agrochemicals that is saddled with a lot of pollution problems, there is what is now being promoted under what is called “Smart Agriculture” that encourages the non-use of chemicals and the use of organic materials instead; which is what farmers are beginning to do.
Can you elaborate on that?
In the past, our local farmers were doing all those things like the use of compost, very simple process. After harvest, all those farm waste like rice husk, corn cob and even part of the stalks and dried leaves, all these are can be harnessed and put somewhere and turned into compost and they know how to do it. Sometimes they dig pits and mix the stuff with some cow dung and after a while, the whole thing decomposes and it is then used as fertilizer. The kind of produce that the farmers get is more desirable in terms of quality than what you get from the agro products.
What about the practice of biological control in farming?
It is all under the aspect of GMOs. What we are doing in biological control is not the best because what you are doing is introducing some pest and where are you bringing the pest you are introducing from? By the time the predator pest destroys the unwanted pest that is causing the problem what then happens with the predator pest? This can now also become a problem because if the pest they feed on is no longer there, they now have to adapt and you don’t know what form that adaptation will take. It may now even become a much more bigger problem than the initial pest that you were trying to control. What is important is to be sure that you are not introducing pest that are alien to that environment.
For that we have the National Bio-Safety Development Agency whose establishment was just recently passed by the house last year and they have the responsibility to check those kind of things. From beginning tests of Bio-control effects, there are dead lines and there are conditions and regulations that must be applied with if you are bringing in micro organism or any genetically modified products and so on; that is also something that the Ministry of Environment is poised to tackle. From the point of view of this smart agriculture there is what is called the eco system-based adaptation for food security, the acronym is ENDAFOSA and that is geared towards promoting sustainable agriculture with less carbon print. It is green agriculture with very minimal input of agrochemicals or herbicides, pesticides and all that. We try as much as possible to minimize that. In some countries, that is already happening. In Nigeria, that has evolved under the federal ministry of environment and agriculture is also involved because of course it is an agricultural thing.
So we have launched that and it is being supported and sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). In fact it is something that has been adopted in Africa, they are just launching it in the various countries. I think it has been launched in Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivore) and Cameroun. In Nigeria, we launched ours this year; that again is one initiative that is targeted at promoting sustainable and pollution free agriculture with minimum environmental impact.
What are your duties as the Director of Pollution Control and Environmental Health?
In that capacity, I have the responsibility to oversee and regulate the activities of the department with regards to ensuring that developmental activities are done in a manner that does not cause pollution beyond the acceptable limits. Our sole responsibility is to promote best practices and best technologies in preventing pollution or managing pollution when it occurs.
How do you go about accomplishing this?
To do this, the department is structured in such a manner that it looks at various problematic areas like solid waste management and liquid management or effluents. We also have environmental health and sanitation and we have chemical management as an area where we ensure that the use of chemicals is done in an environmentally sound manner from cradle to grave; this is from production or import right through handling, transportation, usage and through to disposals . It is a whole life cycle of chemicals. So we have programs and activities to ensure that we limit the hazards and pollution that occur as a result of the handling of the chemicals all through their life cycle for the safety of humans and the environment.
The Agricultural industry is a major industry where chemicals are used: what is your department doing in helping to regulate the use of agrochemicals and promote best practices?
Of course, when we talk about the environmentally sound management of chemicals, it is inclusive of agrochemicals. The use of agrochemicals is a major problem from the stand point of pollution; mishandling has caused a lot of problems both for humans and the environment. We’ve had quite a lot of programs and projects that try to address some of these issues. Some of these programs and projects are actually being implemented under some broader global umbrella because it is a global problem.
There are certain environmental problems that are local and some that are global; the issue of chemicals is considered as a global problem and we have some global arrangement by way of conventions and protocols that are designed to address this. One of them is the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants and agrochemicals very clearly falls under this category. One because the characteristic is that they are persistent in the environment, they travel long distances, they cause cancer and they don’t disintegrate. They have very negative attributes that don’t all go well for the environment and humans.
Nigeria is a signatory to that Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants. There are lots of projects and programs that we have engaged in under that umbrella. Recently, about three to four years ago, we implemented a program called the Management of Africa Stockpile Program on Obsolete Pesticide.
Over the years, because of the misuse and indiscriminate use of these agrochemicals a lot of stocks have accumulated, some in ware houses. Sometimes we even import these chemicals and they are never used, they are just there. Over the years they have been stockpiled so we now put it up as a project under the World Bank and it was funded. All projects under such global arrangements are instigated through implementing agencies and the World Bank was the implementing Agency for obsolete chemicals project.
The main objective of that was to identify where the stockpiles are, quantify them and containerise them for eventual disposal and that was achieved. Right now we have those already containerised in different locations. I’m not very sure of the figures but I think it is about 20-30 tons or so. In Minna, the Niger State capital we have 6 tonness of such obsolete chemicals already containerised.
Are they government or private sector owned?
They are government-owned, they were purchased and not used in different places. Recently we even got a correspondence from an organisation called Crop Life that we have been partnering to ensure the effective management of these pesticides. They are already offering to take these stockpile particularly the 6 tons at Minna because they were involved in the survey and inventory of those pesticides. They have offered to take them abroad for disposal because we don’t have the facilities for that here in Nigeria.
How can the local farmer be assisted to do things right with regards to the use and proper management/handling of these agrochemicals?
During that project, we tried to do some sensitization and create awareness. We provided pamphlets in different Nigerian languages, but it was not widespread because it was a pilot project. The idea is that in the next phase with more funding we will have training programs. Farmers must learn to work with extension officers because in the agricultural sector at different levels you have extension officers. In Zaria for example, we have the National Agricultural Extension Research and Liaison Services (NAERLS) and at state level, we have Agricultural Development Project (ADPs) and they have extension officers. Whether they are being effectively used to reach farmers is another thing; we don’t know the extent to which they are effective.
The other day in Niger State, we went to the place where there has been poisoning from mining and I saw farmers spraying pesticides with no slippers on their feet, no coveralls and no nose masks. This is hazardous and they are exposed to these problems. But more than anything else, the idea of farming without the use of agrochemicals is one thing from our own environmental perspective that we will try to promote. Instead of the use of agrochemicals that is saddled with a lot of pollution problems, there is what is now being promoted under what is called “Smart Agriculture” that encourages the non-use of chemicals and the use of organic materials instead; which is what farmers are beginning to do.
Can you elaborate on that?
In the past, our local farmers were doing all those things like the use of compost, very simple process. After harvest, all those farm waste like rice husk, corn cob and even part of the stalks and dried leaves, all these are can be harnessed and put somewhere and turned into compost and they know how to do it. Sometimes they dig pits and mix the stuff with some cow dung and after a while, the whole thing decomposes and it is then used as fertilizer. The kind of produce that the farmers get is more desirable in terms of quality than what you get from the agro products.
What about the practice of biological control in farming?
It is all under the aspect of GMOs. What we are doing in biological control is not the best because what you are doing is introducing some pest and where are you bringing the pest you are introducing from? By the time the predator pest destroys the unwanted pest that is causing the problem what then happens with the predator pest? This can now also become a problem because if the pest they feed on is no longer there, they now have to adapt and you don’t know what form that adaptation will take. It may now even become a much more bigger problem than the initial pest that you were trying to control. What is important is to be sure that you are not introducing pest that are alien to that environment.
For that we have the National Bio-Safety Development Agency whose establishment was just recently passed by the house last year and they have the responsibility to check those kind of things. From beginning tests of Bio-control effects, there are dead lines and there are conditions and regulations that must be applied with if you are bringing in micro organism or any genetically modified products and so on; that is also something that the Ministry of Environment is poised to tackle. From the point of view of this smart agriculture there is what is called the eco system-based adaptation for food security, the acronym is ENDAFOSA and that is geared towards promoting sustainable agriculture with less carbon print. It is green agriculture with very minimal input of agrochemicals or herbicides, pesticides and all that. We try as much as possible to minimize that. In some countries, that is already happening. In Nigeria, that has evolved under the federal ministry of environment and agriculture is also involved because of course it is an agricultural thing.
So we have launched that and it is being supported and sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). In fact it is something that has been adopted in Africa, they are just launching it in the various countries. I think it has been launched in Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivore) and Cameroun. In Nigeria, we launched ours this year; that again is one initiative that is targeted at promoting sustainable and pollution free agriculture with minimum environmental impact.
No comments:
Post a Comment