How pesticides are fueling poverty in Nigeria

In early January 2026, a popular Nigerian television host opened a morning programme with a startling personal disclosure. After a routine medical test, her doctor reportedly found pesticide residues and nicotine in her blood. She does not smoke and described herself as careful about eating “clean” vegetables. Yet the chemicals were there. She admitted she could not explain how they entered her body. Her experience is not unusual it is simply unusual to hear it said out loud on national television.

In Nigeria, pesticides are often discussed as a necessary input for agricultural productivity. Rarely are they discussed as a public health risk, and almost never as a driver of poverty. Yet across farms, markets, food systems, and households, toxic agrochemicals are quietly imposing costs that far outweigh their perceived benefits.

For millions of Nigerians, the journey from pesticide exposure to illness is not abstract. It is direct, cumulative, and devastating.

Nigeria records about 127,000 new cancer cases each year, a figure that largely reflects those with access to hospitals and diagnostic services. But Nigeria is a country of over 210 million people, more than half of whom (about 129 million Nigerians) live below the national poverty line. These are the Nigerians most exposed to pesticides and least able to access screening, diagnosis, or treatment.

These new cancer cases  are overwhelmingly detected among Nigerians who can afford hospital care and diagnostic services. In a country where more than half the population lives below the poverty line, this means reported cancer figures largely reflect the experience of the non-poor, estimated at about 81 million people. When this figure is used to derive a conservative cancer incidence rate and that same rate is applied to the 129 million poor Nigerians (assuming equal risk), it suggests over 200,000 new cancer cases annually among the poor alone. This is a floor estimate. When realistic exposure differences are considered, including unsafe pesticide use, contaminated food and water, weak regulation, and delayed diagnosis, the annual burden among the poor plausibly rises to 300,000 – 400,000 new cases annually.

Across Nigeria, highly hazardous pesticides are widely available, poorly regulated, and frequently misused. Many are applied without protective equipment, mixed in unsafe concentrations, or sold without proper training. Farmers, farm workers, market women, food vendors, and even children are routinely exposed through spraying, storage, food residues, fumigations and contaminated water sources.

These chemicals do not remain on farms. They travel from fields to markets, from markets to kitchens, and from kitchens into bodies.

For poor Nigerians who depend on informal livelihoods, illness linked to chemical exposure carries immediate economic consequences. Farming, trading, tailoring, transport, and food processing depend on daily physical effort. Cancer, chronic kidney disease, respiratory illness, and neurological disorders reduce productivity long before they become fatal, if they are ever diagnosed at all.

The economic costs are staggering, even under conservative assumptions. If poor Nigerians earn an average of about N350,000 per year (note over 40-50% of Nigerians earn below $1.90/N700 a day = N255, 500 a year), and cancer reduces productivity by just half through illness, treatment, and fatigue, each affected person loses roughly N175,000 annually. Applied to an estimated 250,000–400,000 cancer cases among poor Nigerians, this translates to N45–N70 billion in lost productivity every year. This figure excludes medical expenses, caregiver time, premature deaths, and long-term disability, meaning it represents a lower-bound estimate rather than the full economic cost. Chronic Kidney Disease, which now affects over two million Nigerians, compounds these losses. Dialysis and transplant care remain out of reach for most households, turning illness into long-term impoverishment.

What makes this crisis especially troubling is that it is largely preventable.

Many of the pesticides in common use in Nigeria are restricted or banned in other countries because of their links to cancer, kidney disease, endocrine disruption, and neurological harm. Weak regulation allows these risks to be transferred from producers and distributors onto farmers, consumers, and communities.

This is not an accident. It is the result of policy choices that prioritize short-term yields over long-term health, and cheap inputs over human capital.

The argument that pesticides are indispensable to food security also collapses under scrutiny. The health and economic costs of toxic exposure are simply not counted in food price calculations. When they are considered, the apparent affordability of chemically intensive agriculture begins to look like an illusion.

Agroecological and organic approaches offer a different pathway. By reducing dependence on hazardous chemicals, they lower health risks, protect farmer livelihoods, and preserve soil and water systems. They are not anti-farmer or anti-growth. They are pro-health and pro-economy.

Nigeria cannot achieve food security by sacrificing the health of its farmers and consumers. Nor can it reduce poverty while allowing preventable diseases to strip households of income and dignity.

Pesticides are not just an agricultural issue. They are a public health issue, a poverty issue, and a development issue. Until Nigeria confronts this reality, hospital wards will continue to fill, productivity will continue to fall, and the true cost of “cheap food” will continue to be paid by the poorest Nigerians.

Ofoegbu  is the Program Manager,  German Green Foundation –  Heinrich Boell Stiftunga

Nigerians can now invest ₦2.5 million on premium domains and profit about ₦17-₦25 million. All earnings paid in US Dollars. Rather than wonder, click here to find out how it works.

Join Daily Trust WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.