Stakeholders want agrochemical coys, sponsors of toxic pesticides sanctioned 

Communities, farmer associations, labour groups and concerned CSOs effected by pesticide exposure have been called upon to consider litigation as a way to demand justice for environmental and human health damage.

And as a pathway to claim compensation from agrochemical companies and their sponsors who encourage the use of highly toxic pesticides without continuous monitoring of application, provision of safety kits or availing users licensed pesticide applicators.

Stakeholders at the one-day documentary screening and panel discussion on pesticide double standards and improving pesticide regulation in Nigeria that held in Abuja recently, lamented the double standard of the Europeans, and the West who stall allowed highly hazardous pesticides (HHP), obsolete and adulterated pesticides produced in their domain to be exported into developing countries.

This was part of the demand by stakeholders from the meeting organised by Alliance for Action on Pesticide in Nigeria (AAPN), a coalition of over 40 civil society organizations, academia, independent scientists and media professionals, who are committed to phasing out all highly hazardous pesticides (HHP), obsolete and adulterated pesticides from Nigeria and West Africa.

The stakeholders in the call-to-action communique said it is working to end the double standard that exist in the global trade in pesticide active ingredients and products.

“The issue at hand regards pesticide products and active ingredients that are either banned or not approved in the EU due to health or environmental concerns but that are nevertheless exported out of the EU by agrochemical corporations and are then sold in other regions of the world,” they said.