Farmers’ compliance with the use of approved cocoa pesticides in cocoa producing states of Nigeria

Abstract

The survey evaluates the awareness and level of compliance in the use of approved cocoa pesticides by local farmers in selected cocoa producing states of Nigeria. Thirty farmers were randomly selected in Kwara, Ogun and Osun States. More than 70 percent of the farmers were aware of banned cocoa pesticides. The source of cocoa pesticides used by the farmers includes agrochemicals retailers, Cocoa traders, Cocoa Association of Nigeria (CAN), and Agricultural Development Programme (ADP). Ridomil plus (29.2 percent) was mostly known as banned cocoa pesticide by farmers in Ogun State while Gammalin 20 and Basudin were mostly known to the farmers in Osun and Kwara States. About 50 percent of farmers in Ogun, 8.0 percent in Osun and 8.3 percent in Kwara indicated that they were still using some of the banned chemicals due to their effectiveness in the control of pest and diseases and inexpensive. There should be adequate registration of all approved cocoa pesticides by concerned agency as well as enlightenment by extension agents to the cocoa farmers and the sellers and suppliers of the agrochemicals in each of the cocoa producing states of Nigeria. Banned agrochemicals should not be allowed into the country, monitoring group working in conjunction with Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA) are to work out modality for the removal of banned chemicals in the market.

Keywords: Cocoa pesticides, pesticide registration, radio and television, Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN)