Nigeria is awash with dangerous pesticides
Many are banned elsewhere for causing cancer or harming the environment
![Workers sprays pesticide, used against fall armyworm, Nigeria](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20231028_MAP507.jpg)
For quite a while, Nigeria has been talking up its desire to end its reliance on oil money and earn more from other sources, especially farming. Its population of around 213m, the biggest in Africa, has some 37m hectares of fertile land. But it grows too little on it.
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This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Don’t be too pesticidal”
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