Nigeria is one of several countries where CropLife International implemented an obsolete pesticides management programme. Its main objective in Nigeria was to inventory all obsolete pesticides and empty pesticide containers and to safeguard the identified products. In one state, almost six tonnes of obsolete pesticides were safeguarded. Work on the project stopped in June 2012 and CropLife Nigeria is currently looking for additional funding to continue safeguarding activities.
Although Nigeria is part of the Africa Stockpiles Programme, a similar project launched in 2006, organisers did not take an inventory of stocks in the private sector (i.e., agro-dealers, farmers and other users) and CropLife International decided to take on this task. In May 2010, in collaboration with CropLife Nigeria and the Nigerian Ministry of Environment, pilot activities started in five states. Extension officers from the Ministry of Agriculture were trained to take inventory and a radio campaign alerted agro-dealers and farmers about the programme.
The project collected a total of 1,200 forms, which were entered in a database and used to identify about 10 tonnes of obsolete pesticides and more than 70,000 empty containers. Of the identified obsolete pesticides (of which 10 per cent were classified as highly hazardous or leaking), 20 per cent were originally manufactured by CropLife International members, 70 per cent by Chinese companies and 10 per cent by other companies.
CropLife International committed itself to safeguarding obsolete stocks in one state. After discussions with partner organisations and analysis of the inventory data, organisers decided to safeguard the materials in Niger State. First, it upgraded a storage facility, which belongs to the Ministry of Agriculture, according to United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation guidelines for storage facilities of pesticides.
To staff the project, Veolia, a private company from the United Kingdom that specialises in hazardous waste, conducted a training program on safeguarding. Participants included staff from CropLife Nigeria member companies, the Ministry of Health, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Agricultural Development Project (part of the Ministry of Agriculture) and a dealers association. Three staff members from CropLife Ghana also assisted the Nigerian team during safeguarding activities.
In November 2011, project staff safeguarded a total of almost six tonnes of obsolete pesticides divided over six locations. Initially, the inventory in Niger State showed 2.5 tonnes of obsolete pesticides divided over 64 locations, but the safeguarding team discovered quickly that the real situation was different than what was identified during the inventory. In one store where the team arrived, they found 32 tonnes of 100 per cent DDVP pesticide packed in 100-millilitre bottles. Because the team did not have the equipment to safeguard such a quantity, they decided to only safeguard bottles that were obviously leaking.
In addition to safeguarding activities, organisers established a pilot project on container management in the same state. Currently, the project finances 10 collection bins placed in different communities by the Ministry of Agriculture. Extension officers collect the containers and bring them to a central place in various geographic zones. CropLife Nigeria has committed itself to organising the transport of the containers from the zones to a temporary storage facility and to researching possibilities for recycling the plastic containers.
CropLife Nigeria continues to look for other collaborating agencies to complete the obsolete stock inventory throughout the country and to safeguard all identified products. A proposal to do so, representing all of Nigeria’s 36 states, was submitted to the National Agricultural Council. While it received positive responses, no concrete funding has been allocated yet for future safeguarding activities.