IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/ajfand/340711.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pesticide Use, Management Practices And Perceived Effects On The Health Of Cocoa Farmers In Cross River State, Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Eta, HC
  • Eremi, EO
  • diku, FO
  • Eta, JN

Abstract

Pesticide poisoning is a leading occupational and public health concern among farmers in Nigeria. Nevertheless, with the country’s rising population coupled with fluctuations in climatic conditions that favor frequent pest and disease outbreaks, the demand for pesticides has been on the increase to enhance food production and quality, thereby ensuring food security. Cross River State is the second largest cocoa producing state in the country with many small scale farmers involved in cocoa production. In spite of researches carried out on agrochemical use in Nigeria, little is known about pesticide use in Cross River State. This study was, therefore, aimed at documenting pesticide use, management practices and perceived effects on cocoa farmers’ health in Cross River State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used to survey 150 cocoa farmers in the State. A set of structured questionnaires was used to elicit information from farmers. The instrument focused on farmers’ socio-economic characteristics, major pesticides used, pesticide management practices, and perceived pesticide effects on health. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results showed that the majority (71.3%) of farmers was male with most (60.7%) having farming experience of ten years and above, implying that cocoa production is dominated by men. Pesticides used in the study area were: herbicides such as clear weed (58%), insecticides such as Actara 25WG (98%) and Dursban 48EC (96%), inferring that more insecticides than herbicides were used by farmers. Pesticide management practices such as “use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and reading manufacturers’ instructions before pesticide application” were practiced by 26% and 38% of respondents, respectively. Cough (MS=4.03), shortness of breath (MS=3.96), skin itching (MS=3.87), dizziness (MS=3.78) and sneezing (MS=3.78) were the severely perceived pesticide related sicknesses reported by farmers. The study recommended that agricultural extension advisory services should lay more emphasis on pesticide risk awareness and attitudinal change among farmers.

Suggested Citation

  • Eta, HC & Eremi, EO & diku, FO & Eta, JN, 2023. "Pesticide Use, Management Practices And Perceived Effects On The Health Of Cocoa Farmers In Cross River State, Nigeria," African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND), African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND), vol. 23(6), June.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:ajfand:340711
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.340711
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/340711/files/Eta.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.340711?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roba Argaw Tessema & Károly Nagy & Balázs Ádám, 2021. "Pesticide Use, Perceived Health Risks and Management in Ethiopia and in Hungary: A Comparative Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-14, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Florența-Elena Helepciuc & Arpad Todor, 2022. "Evaluating the EU’s Efforts to Improve Resilience to Health and Environmental Risks Associated with Pesticide Use by Analyzing the National Action Plans of EU Member States from 2009 to 2019," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-9, April.
    2. Dorothy Nguyen & Candace S. J. Tsai, 2024. "Inadequate Personal Protective Equipment Factors and Odds Related to Acute Pesticide Poisoning: A Meta-Analysis Report," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(3), pages 1-12, February.
    3. Xiaoshan Su & Jingyi Shi & Tianxi Wang & Qinghui Shen & Wentao Niu & Zhenzhen Xu, 2022. "More Income, Less Pollution? How Income Expectation Affects Pesticide Application," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-23, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:ajfand:340711. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.ajfand.net/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.