Kano State are raising fresh concerns about the growing push for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as a roadmap to food security.
At a recent training and stakeholder consultative meeting on agroecology in the state, farmers and civil society groups argued that GMOs and chemical pesticides are not solutions to hunger or climate shocks but are instead health risks, biodiversity risks, and long-term soil fertility risks.
They are calling for a national ban on GMOs and greater investment in agroecology as a sustainable alternative.
A deepening crisis
Nigeria’s food system faces mounting strain from the high cost of farm inputs, climate shocks, and widespread soil degradation—all of which weigh heavily on smallholder farmers who produce most of the nation’s food.
While some policymakers see GMO crops as a technological fix, many farmers insist that the model worsens dependence on foreign seed companies, undermines local food systems, and introduces new environmental and health risks.
The pesticide problem
Participants at the Kano meeting described agrochemicals as a public health crisis. They cited respiratory illness, kidney disease, and cancer as common outcomes of long-term exposure, with women disproportionately affected—about 75% of female farmers in Nigeria face pesticide-related health challenges.
In addition to the cost in human life, pesticides are killing pollinators and leaching soil fertility and are poisoning water sources. Evidence against the adoption of GMOs was equally presented.
It was tragically underscored in 2020 when at least 270 persons were killed in Benue when water polluted with pesticides found its way into local streams.
That Benue incident was not isolated. A national survey of pesticide use between 2008 and 2022 reported 24 pesticide-related poisoning incidents across Nigeria, resulting in at least 454 deaths, many of them women and children.
Most of the fatalities were due to unsafe handling of poisonous agrochemicals or contamination of communal water points, making safer farming options even more urgently needed
Alarmingly, nearly half of the pesticides registered in Nigeria are banned in Europe, and this has triggered alarm about protection standards and control systems.
In response, the Kano farmers and allies are seeking a clear change of policy; their appeal to the state government requested three immediate steps: a prohibition on GMOs to protect indigenous seeds and local ways of living, the removal of dangerous chemicals from the market, and increased investment in agroecology and organic farming.
Agroecology, they stressed, is more than just doing without chemicals; it blends traditional knowledge and contemporary ecological science, diversifies the basis of food output, rejuvenates soils, and decreases reliance on expensive external inputs.
Nigeria already has small but growing examples of agroecology at work.
Across the north, the community’s own millet, sorghum, and cowpeas are being preserved by locally managed seed banks, allowing the communities to combat drought and pests naturally without chemicals.
In the southwest, organic cooperatives are marketing chemical-free vegetables to urban consumers at a reasonable price, proving that ecological production can be profitable as well.
These instances, farmers argue, show that solutions are not imported but grounded in local capacity.
At a crossroads
With Nigeria’s population set to surpass 400 million by 2050, the decisions made about food production carry far-reaching implications for public health, environmental sustainability, and economic development.
For farmers in Kano, the choice is clear—food security must not be at the expense of toxified soils, disappearing pollinators, and expanding cancer wards.
Agroecology, they insist, offers a way to restore balance between people, food, and nature.
Summary not available at this time.
