As 420,000 people die annually — Report

By Gabriel Ewepu – Abuja

As nations across the world marked World Food Safety Day on Sunday, June 7, 2020, the National President of Potato Farmers Association of Nigeria, POFAN, Daniel Okafor, Monday, tasked farmers on the use of chemicals in food production.

Speaking with Vanguard on 2020 World Food Safety Day with the theme, ‘Food Safety, everyone’s business’, Okafor said poisonous food is a killer agent in the food system and had remained a challenge in food production across the world including Nigeria.

He also pointed out that farmers being important stakeholders in the food system should ensure that appropriate safety measures are taking by ensuring that they trace every input they use during production and storage to the manufacturers, country of origin, and distributors to ensure originality and to detect fake products.

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He added that farmers are to consider the health of consumers, which they are to be conscious of chemicals used for food storage and preservation for safety purposes.

The United Nations General Assembly in 2018 declared June 7, World Food Safety Day, and was first observed on June 7, 2019, to draw global attention to the health consequences of contaminated food and water.

According to reports that one in 10 persons take ill after consuming contaminated food, while 420,000 people die annually, which mostly affects children under five with 125,000 deaths recorded yearly.

The essence of the Day is to create awareness and make food safety everybody’s priority for a healthy society; from farm-to-fork.

Two renowned international organizations, the Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, and the World Health Organisation, WHO were mandated by the United Nations (UN) collaborate in promoting food safety campaign, enlightenment, capacity building, and render support to countries of the world in food safety policies and measures.

He said: “Today is the World Food Safety Day with the theme, ‘Food Safety, Everyone’s Business’ and it is worth celebrating. A poisonous food is a killer agent and we must work together as farmers to ensure that what we consume and the ones we provide for sales to the general public are safe for consumption.

“Food safety is a very important topic that desires serious attention from all stakeholders in the food system which is a major part of human existence including socio-economic growth of the nation because we are what we eat.

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“My candid advice to Nigeria farmers is as follows. First and foremost, I am encouraging my potato farmers who are members on Potato Farmers Association of Nigeria, POFAN, to know that they are very important stakeholders in the food system and should ensure that appropriate safety measures are taking by ensuring that they trace every input they use during production and storage period including meticulous checks on storage facilities in order to ensure those farm products are safely stored.

“Secondly, I have been a farmer for a long time now, when manual weeding was paramount and now the use of chemical is the order of the day, farmers should be conscious of whatever chemical they are applying on the cause of production to avoid high chemical residual accumulation as it is dangerous to our health and our life is endangered including the consumers who buy the food.”

The POFAN boss who also doubles as Vice President, All Farmers Association of Nigeria, AFAN, emphasized strongly that storage processes should be carefully handled in order “to avoid any form of food poisoning on the masses in the name of food preservation.”

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