By Chioma Obinagwam
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has appealed to traders to desist from using chemicals for food preservation and fruit ripening.
This is coming on the heels of reported cases of the use of harmful chemicals such as snipper and carbide for food preservation and ripening.
Sniper insecticide, marketed by Swiss-Nigeria Chemical Company, is a very popular brand in Nigeria and has come to be known as the most effective in driving away insects, including mosquitoes, cockroaches and more. Sniper belongs to the DDVP chemical family, (dichlorvos) 2, 2-dichlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate compound.
Carbide is a compound of carbon with a more electropositive element or group. calcium carbide. a very hard mixture of sintered carbides of various heavy metals, especially tungsten carbide, used for cutting edges and dies.
Speaking in Otukpo, Benue, the minister said the act was detrimental to human health and the environment.
“Sniper is very dangerous; people also use carbide to ripen bananas and some other fruits; people do all kinds of things.
“Suddenly, people are developing different diseases, something is wrong,’’ he said, in reaction to the reported use of 2,2-dichlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate, otherwise marketed and known as sniper, to preserve beans by retailers.
He appealed to foodstuff and fruit sellers and others Nigerians to adopt natural means of preservation.
According to him, the ministry would collaborate with the National Orientation Agency to create more awareness on the need for citizens not to use chemicals for food preservation and fruit ripening. “We appeal that they use natural means such as pepper to prevent weevils in beans instead of sniper. We hear this and we send people to warn them but the ministry can catch everybody. “We are going to use the National Orientation Agency and state ministries of agriculture to create awareness on the need for people to desist from these acts.
“We just have to keep educating people,” he said.
Leave a comment