Deadly Harvest: How Banned Pesticides Keep Poisoning Nigerian Farms and Food

Abdullahi Yusuf never thought farming could kill his daughter.

For generations, his family grew corn, millet, and vegetables on a dusty patch of land in northwest Nigeria. The 45-year-old farmer earned just over $200 a month selling his produce at local markets. Like every farmer in his village, he used pesticides to protect his crops from locusts, weevils, and weeds.

Last year, his 12-year-old daughter died of leukemia. Local physicians told him the illness was likely caused by the very pesticides he’d been using for years.

“She just ate the food I grew,” Yusuf said quietly, running his fingers through the powdery soil. “I was feeding her poison without knowing.”

His story, reported by Bloomberg in December 2024, is far from unique. Across Nigeria, farmers unknowingly use pesticides that have been banned for years in Europe and other countries, turning their fields into toxic zones and their harvests into health hazards. The chemicals Europeans deemed too dangerous for their own farms are sold freely in Nigerian markets, poisoning farmers, their families, and consumers who eat the contaminated food.

The Toxic Trade No One Talks About

Walk into any agrochemical shop in Nigeria and you’ll find them sitting on shelves like ordinary goods: paraquat, chlorpyrifos, atrazine, mancozeb. These are pesticides banned or heavily restricted in the European Union because they cause cancer, neurological disorders, and other serious health problems. Yet they remain widely available across Nigeria.

Professor Rex Aladesanwa, who specializes in Chemical Weed Control and Plant Protection at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, raised alarm bells in July 2024. He pointed to paraquat, parathion, and methyl parathion as banned chemicals that continue to be sold openly by pesticide dealers nationwide.

The scale of the problem is staggering. Research by the Heinrich Böll Foundation revealed that 40 percent of pesticides registered for use in Nigeria have been withdrawn from the European market because they’re considered too toxic, too persistent in the environment, or lack adequate safety data.

Muhammad Kabir Musa, a public health expert at the University of Michigan, told Bloomberg there’s substantial scientific proof linking certain EU-banned chemicals to cancer and neurological diseases. Yet European companies continue manufacturing these substances and exporting them to African countries, including Nigeria.

The Alliance for Action on Pesticides in Nigeria, which advocates for phasing out dangerous agrochemicals, reports that more than half of all pesticides used in the country pose major threats to human health. At least 450 people died from pesticide exposure in Nigeria between 2008 and 2022, according to the organization’s data.

But that number doesn’t capture the full picture. It doesn’t count the farmers who die slowly from cancer, the children born with birth defects, or the families who never connect their illnesses to the chemicals used on their farms.

The deadliest incident came in 2020, when over 270 people in Benue State died after endosulfan, a highly hazardous pesticide, contaminated a community river. Entire families were wiped out. Children who played near the water fell sick and never recovered. Adults who drank from the river died agonizing deaths.

Donald Ikenna Ofoegbu, Lead Coordinator of the Alliance for Action on Pesticide in Nigeria, said the tragedy exposed Nigeria’s inability to control the flow of dangerous pesticides. The national database on chemicals remains inaccessible, and planned bans are rarely enforced.

Farmers Without Knowledge, Working Without Protection

In Ebonyi State’s Ndiebor community, a farmer named Joe (who asked that his full name not be used for fear of reprisals) admits he uses Gammalin, which contains lindane, a substance banned in Nigeria for years due to high toxicity.

“These are powerful chemicals—we need to protect ourselves 100 percent to avoid skin contact with these chemicals; the smell of the chemicals are also poisonous,” Joe told researchers.

Yet like most Nigerian farmers, he rarely uses protective equipment. It’s too expensive, too hot, or simply unavailable. The vegetables from his farm, including scent leaf and various leafy greens, are sold in large quantities to markets across Lagos, where millions of unsuspecting consumers buy and eat them.

A survey by the Alliance for Action on Pesticide in Nigeria and the Small-Scale Women Farmers Organisation found that 80 percent of pesticides used most frequently by small-scale farmers were hazardous. Seventy-five percent of women farmers reported symptoms from pesticide use, including respiratory problems, eye irritation, dizziness, vomiting, and skin rashes.

The most troubling finding was this: over 80 percent of surveyed farmers don’t know the active ingredients in the pesticides they’re using on their crops or the health risks those chemicals pose.

For many farmers, the ignorance isn’t willful. They’ve received no training, have no access to safety information, and can’t afford safer alternatives even if they wanted them. Many small farmers depend on cheap imported pesticides because they have no other option.

Zainab Isah Arah, Chair of the Small-Scale Women Farmers Organisation in Nigeria’s Niger State, explained the vicious cycle:

“We are exposed to danger because most farmers lack knowledge of safe pesticide use. Soil fertility has been destroyed, forcing us to return to compost manure. Nigerian produce cannot compete internationally because of these chemicals.”

Women farmers face particularly cruel risks. Many of the banned pesticides are hormonally active or disrupt the endocrine system. Pregnant women in farming communities carry pesticide residues in their bodies and pass them to unborn children. Children growing up near farms inhale toxic fumes, play in contaminated soil, and eat produce laden with chemical residues.

The Economic Price of Poison

The pesticide crisis isn’t just killing people; it’s crippling Nigeria’s agricultural economy.

Nigeria loses over $362 million annually because food exports are rejected due to pesticide residues, according to the Alliance for Action on Pesticides in Nigeria. Since 2015, the European Union has banned agricultural products from Nigeria that contain pesticide residues, including groundnut, palm oil, sesame seed, and beans.

The bitter irony is hard to ignore. European companies manufacture toxic chemicals, ban them at home as too dangerous, then export them to Nigeria. Nigerian farmers use the chemicals, then European markets reject Nigerian products for containing the same chemicals European companies sold them.

Ofoegbu also revealed that Japanese authorities have raised concerns about Nigerian farmers using pesticides to dry sesame. If the practice continues, it could trigger another export ban and devastate thousands of farming families who depend on sesame sales.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s food exports undergo regular testing, and pesticide residues often far exceed maximum allowed limits on various crops. Yet the average Nigerian consumer has no idea how much pesticide contamination is in the food they eat every day.

What Needs to Happen Now

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has taken some action. NAFDAC banned three major pesticides: paraquat (effective January 1, 2024), chlorpyrifos (effective November 1, 2024), and atrazine (effective January 1, 2025). The agency has also initiated plans to ban or phase out 12 additional active ingredients.

But bans on paper mean little when enforcement is weak. With limited resources, inadequate laboratories, and a vast informal market, NAFDAC’s regulations are difficult to implement. Ofoegbu warns that NAFDAC should not allow any permits or exemptions for banned pesticides, noting the agency’s poor capacity to effectively monitor and enforce laws.

Professor Tanimola Akande, a public health expert at the University of Ilorin, emphasizes that agrochemical poisoning can lead to death. Farmers, farm workers, and their families in agrarian communities experience the highest pesticide exposure, putting them at high risk of cancer, birth defects, autism, and other diseases.

Recent laboratory tests on farmlands around Lagos reveal disturbing truths. Despite Nigeria banning organochlorine pesticides in 2008, tests still find these substances in soil, vegetables, and soil samples from farm fields. These chemicals don’t disappear; they persist for years, seeping into groundwater and accumulating in crops long after they’re banned.

Solutions do exist. Integrated Pest Management combines biological, cultural, and chemical practices as safer alternatives. Traditional biological pest control methods, which Nigerian farmers used for generations, can be revived and enhanced with modern knowledge.

Joyce Brown, an agroforestry expert and director at HOMEF, suggests empowering farmers and agroecologists to produce organic pesticides using readily available raw materials such as ginger, garlic, and pepper.

“With such pesticides, you’re sure you are not destroying beneficial microorganisms,” she explained.

But this requires investment in training, research, and infrastructure. It requires political will to stand up to powerful pesticide manufacturers. And it requires acknowledging an uncomfortable truth: Nigeria has become a dumping ground for chemicals deemed too toxic for use in the countries that manufacture them.

Jochen Luckscheiter, Director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Nigeria, welcomed Germany’s commitment to create laws prohibiting the export of pesticides banned in the EU.

“Aside from stopping the import of these toxic substances, Nigeria should chart a deliberate path towards an overall reduction in pesticide use,” he said.

Nigeria must strengthen NAFDAC’s capacity with adequate funding, modern laboratories, and trained personnel. The country needs strict penalties for selling banned chemicals, mandatory training for pesticide dealers, and public awareness campaigns in local languages across farming communities. Investment in organic farming research and promotion of safer pest management practices must become priorities.

Most importantly, Nigerian farmers must stop being treated as dumping grounds for chemicals deemed too dangerous for Europeans.

A Father’s Grief, A Nation’s Warning

Back in his northwest Nigerian village, Abdullahi Yusuf still farms. He still uses pesticides because he sees no other way to protect his crops and feed his remaining family members. But he thinks about his daughter every day.

He wonders how many other children are eating poison without their parents knowing. He wonders how many more families will lose loved ones before Nigeria’s leaders take action.

The pesticide crisis in Nigeria reveals a brutal double standard in global trade. But it also reveals something about Nigeria itself: a regulatory system too weak to protect its own people, an agricultural sector left vulnerable to exploitation, and millions of farmers and consumers unknowingly poisoned by the food system they depend on.

The choice before Nigeria is clear. Continue down this path of banned pesticides, more deaths, contaminated food, and economic losses from export rejections. Or chart a new course toward sustainable agriculture that protects farmers, consumers, and the environment.

The question is whether Nigeria’s leaders will act before more children like Yusuf’s daughter pay the ultimate price.

This investigation is based on credible reports from Bloomberg, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Alliance for Action on Pesticide in Nigeria, DW, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, and interviews with farmers, experts, and civil society organizations across Nigeria.