By Vincent Asogwa
Nigeria faces a deadly yet preventable crisis that continues to claim thousands of lives each year. Snakebite envenoming, classified by the World Health Organization as a Category A Neglected Tropical Disease, kills an estimated 1,900 Nigerians annually and injures tens of thousands more. The Toxinological Society of Nigeria reports that approximately 43,000 Nigerians are bitten by snakes every year, placing the country among the highest-burdened nations in sub-Saharan Africa.
Behind these statistics are farmers working their fields, children walking to school, pregnant women travelling to clinics, and breadwinners returning from a day’s labour. Their deaths are not inevitable. They occur because the one medicine that could save them—antivenom—is unavailable, unaffordable, or counterfeit.
Although often framed as a medical emergency, this crisis extends far beyond healthcare. It is equally an agricultural challenge, an educational gap, and a failure of national development. Nigeria is home to 29 snake species, nearly 41 per cent of which are venomous. Yet the country cannot produce a single vial of antivenom domestically. The reason is straightforward: antivenom production requires venom, and venom requires snakes that are reared, handled, and milked in controlled environments.
At present, Nigeria has no such facilities. There is no established culture of snake farming, and no agricultural curriculum that teaches ophiology, herpetology, serpentology, or venomous animal husbandry. A nation capable of producing rice, rearing cattle, and cultivating cassava at scale has not developed the capacity to rear the very animals whose venom could save thousands of lives.
The consequences of this gap are severe. Victims often pay between ₦180,000 and ₦250,000 per dose of antivenom—equivalent to roughly four months’ income for a minimum-wage earner earning ₦70,000. Many patients require multiple doses. For rural farmers, who make up the majority of victims, this cost is simply unaffordable.
Compounding the problem, at least half of Nigeria’s health facilities lack the capacity to treat snakebite envenoming effectively. The Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria has recorded more than 2,000 preventable snakebite-related deaths annually. Even when antivenom is available, its quality is not guaranteed. Investigations have revealed that some imported antivenoms are ineffective against West African snake venom, while counterfeit products further undermine treatment. Alarmingly, a vast majority of Nigerian health workers report difficulties both in accessing and administering antivenom. In short, the system is failing at every level.
Globally, the urgency is undeniable. Up to 2.7 million people are bitten by venomous snakes each year, resulting in as many as 138,000 deaths. This translates to one death every four to six minutes. The World Health Organization aims to halve the global burden of snakebite by 2030, yet Nigeria remains far from meeting this target. The country lacks the foundational infrastructure required to produce its own antivenom—and that infrastructure begins not in the laboratory, but in the classroom, particularly within agricultural education.
Antivenom production is a biologically intensive process. It begins with the careful extraction of venom from live snakes. This venom is then administered in controlled doses to host animals, such as horses or sheep, which in turn produce antibodies. These antibodies are subsequently harvested, purified, and formulated into antivenom. Each stage requires specialised expertise. While Nigeria possesses pharmaceutical companies, biochemists, and research institutions, it lacks the critical first link in the chain: a trained workforce capable of safely rearing and managing venomous snakes.
Agricultural education must therefore rise to meet this challenge. Curricula at secondary schools, polytechnics, colleges of agriculture, and universities should expand beyond traditional areas—such as crops, livestock, fisheries, and forestry—to include reptile farming, particularly ophidian agriculture: the science and practice of rearing snakes for biological and pharmaceutical purposes.
This is not a novel concept. Countries such as Thailand, China, Brazil, and India have long-established snake farms that supply venom for antivenom production. Nigeria, with its rich biodiversity, agricultural infrastructure, and growing pharmaceutical sector, has all the necessary resources to follow suit.
The call to action is clear. Curriculum developers within the National Board for Technical Education, the National Universities Commission, and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture must collaborate to introduce specialised modules in herpetology, venomous reptile husbandry, and venom extraction. At the same time, the Federal Ministry of Health should partner with agricultural institutions to establish pilot snake farms built to appropriate biosafety standards and directly linked to domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers. State governments should also be incentivised to host such facilities, particularly in high-burden states such as Gombe, Benue, Kebbi, and Nasarawa.
Furthermore, the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development requires targeted funding to develop a sustainable, domestic antivenom production pipeline anchored in locally sourced venom. While legislative efforts to mandate antivenom availability in hospitals are commendable, they will remain ineffective without a reliable domestic supply chain. Continued reliance on imports leaves Nigeria vulnerable to shortages, high costs, and counterfeit products.
Beyond policy and infrastructure, cultural resistance must also be addressed. Snake rearing is not a traditional practice in most Nigerian communities, and the idea may evoke fear or stigma. However, agricultural education has historically driven behavioural change—normalising innovations such as improved seed varieties, fertiliser use, maggot production, and aquaculture. It can do the same for ophidian husbandry, reframing it as a viable, profitable, and nationally important agricultural enterprise.
The death of 26-year-old singer Ifunanya Nwangene from a cobra bite in Abuja in early 2026 shocked the nation, yet her story is far from unique. Across Nigeria, lives are lost to a condition that a single vial of effective antivenom could treat. That vial is absent because the system required to produce it does not yet exist.
Nigeria cannot heal its people with medicines it does not produce. It cannot produce those medicines without the animals that provide the raw materials. And it cannot rear those animals without a properly trained agricultural workforce. Ultimately, the farm is the foundation of the pharmacy.
The time to act is now.
Asogwa is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Education at the University of Eswatini and can be reached on +2348034232630
