In a bid to control suicide cases in the country, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Thursday banned the production of smaller packs of Sniper and other harmful agro-chemicals. Disclosing this on Thursday, Dr Husman Bukar, the Director, Veterinary Medicine and Allied Products Directorate, NAFDAC, opined that the products hurt applicators and the environment they are applied. 

 

He 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 had been associated with suicides in Nigeria. His words, “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 (Snipper) 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. 

“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. Also speaking, Mr Shanni Srivastava, the UPL Country Manager, said his company was working towards ensuring that only safer and environmentally friendly herbicides are introduced in the Nigerian market for the benefit of farmers. He said the debut of Lifeline was to offer a better and safer alternative to paraquat which in several countries in Africa had been banned.”