Determinants of Cocoa Farmers' Compliance with Agrochemical Safety Precautions in Ogun and Osun States, Nigeria

Cocoa is one of the major cash crops in Nigeria and its production is directly related to the effective utilization of agrochemicals. This paper analysed the factors influencing cocoa farmers’ compliance with agrochemical safety regulations. The data were collected from 326 cocoa farmers from Ogun and Osun states, using multi-stage sampling procedures. The data were analysed with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and an Endogenous Tobit Regression model. The results showed that majority of the farmers were primarily growing cocoa and average ownership of personal protective equipment (PPE) was less than two. Awareness of manufacturers’ instructions was high for insecticides and fungicides, while majority of the farmers were not eating or drinking while handling agrochemicals. Safety compliance indicators were significantly influenced (p < 0.10) by farmers’ ownership of PPE, education, age, awareness of manufacturers’ safety instructions and health status. It was concluded that utilization of PPE was very low among the farmers and efforts to facilitate safety training on the use of different agrochemicals will facilitate safety compliance through proper understanding of manufacturers’ instructions.