No fewer than 70 smallholder farmers were trained on good agricultural practices and pesticide management by the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) in Adamawa State.

Nonye Ayeni, the NEPC executive director, made this known on Saturday at the closing of a capacity-building workshop in Numan Local Government Area.

According to her, the training aims to ensure farm products meet domestic and international standards for export.

Ms Ayeni, represented by the NEPC regional coordinator, Dr Anani Egon, said the workshop was organised with technical support from the Adamawa Agricultural Development Programme.

She said the training focused on safe pesticide handling, storage, application, personal safety and environmental protection.

The executive director said compliance with relevant standards was essential to producing safe, quality agricultural commodities that can compete in international markets. She expressed concern over the rejection of Nigerian agricultural products in the European Union (EU) and other export destinations due to pesticide residues.

“Residues, particularly dichlorvos, sometimes exceed permissible limits, resulting in rejection of consignments at border control points.

“Inadequate knowledge and improper pesticide application could contaminate food, soil and ecosystems, while threatening human health and export opportunities,” Ms Ayeni said.

She said farmers, aggregators, processors, transporters and regulatory agencies must work together to ensure that export-quality commodities are produced from the farm gate.

“Export success begins from the farm gate. The exporter cannot address every problem related to export rejections,” Ms Ayeni said.

She said the NEPC Pesticide Management Project was designed to address agricultural export rejections arising from pesticide residues and improve compliance with global standards.

Ms Ayeni said the council would continue supporting small-holder farmers and processors through capacity building, farm inputs, quality certification and grants.

Dr Ishaya Dabari, the Adamawa State Commissioner for Commerce, Trade and Industry, represented by Aliyu Shehu, said the government prioritised agricultural development.

Mr Dabari said the government had directed relevant partners to implement agricultural programmes across the local government areas, to enable more farmers to benefit.

Hajara Adamu, an extension agent with the Adamawa Agricultural Programme, said the training was important in promoting safer and healthier farming practices.

“The training is very important to farmers; we emphasised organic farming instead of the use of chemicals.

“If farmers produce crops organically like soya beans, groundnuts, sesame seeds and comply with good agricultural practices, it will improve the economy, and citizens will be healthier,” she said.

Clara Heman, a participant, appreciated the council for organising the training, describing it as educative and beneficial to farmers.

Highlights of the event included distributing farm boots and agricultural spray containers to beneficiaries.

(NAN)