FARMERS PERCEPTIONS OF AGROCHEMICALS USE IN SEED YAM PRODUCTION IN UMUAHIA SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ABIA STATE, NIGERIA

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1 FARMERS PERCEPTIONS OF AGROCHEMICALS USE IN SEED YAM PRODUCTION IN UMUAHIA SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ABIA STATE, NIGERIA ABSTRACT Ekwe K. C. and Osuagwu J. C. Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, PMB 7267 Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria. Corresponding author: ( ) The paper examined farmers perceptions of agrochemicals use in seed yam production in Umuahia South Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria. Two-stage sampling procedure was adopted in selecting respondents for the study which gave rise to a sample size of 120 respondents. Data were generated from the respondents through use of structured questionnaires. The data obtained for the study were then analysed using descriptive statistics and ordinary least square regression analysis. Results of the analysis showed that respondents rated high their knowledge of agrochemicals used in weed control and inorganic fertilizer for seed yam production. Also, farmers perceived use of agrochemicals for seed yam production to be unsafe (dangerous to humans), not readily available and costly. Factors that affected farmers perceptions of agrochemicals included age, marital status, education level, farming experience farm size and annual income. Thus these factors were considered as major determinants of farmers perceptions of agrochemicals use for seed yam production in the study area. It was therefore recommended that both extension agents and other relevant government agencies should also educate farmers and indeed the entire populace the safety measures in use of agrochemicals. Also, extension agents should assist in advising farmers on where to obtain the needed agrochemicals especially at cheap prices. Keywords: Farmers, Perception, Agrochemicals, Seed yam INTRODUCTION Yam has some inherent characteristics, which make it attractive. These include high content of carbohydrate especially starch which enhances the multiplicity of its end use, all year round availability due to its high storability thereby making it preferable to other seasonal crops. Yam also plays vital roles in tradition, culture, rituals and religion as well as local commerce of the African people (Hahns et al., 1993). In Nigeria, yam is becoming more expensive and relatively unaffordable in urban areas, as production has not kept pace with population growth leading to demand exceeding supply. This is because increased production of yam is believed to be constrained mostly by high cost of seed yam (NRCRI, 2004). Similarly, Agbaje and Oyegbami (2005) reported that the cost of planting materials constitute about 33-45% of capital outlay in seed yam productions. For many farmers in Nigeria, seed yam are inherited from parents, bought, or acquired as gifts. The seed yam is multiplied over and over until productivity becomes very low from continuous exposure to pests and diseases. Hence, the problem of the limited supply of affordable good quality planting material accounted for the low productivity (Ironkwe et al. 2007). Researchers in Nigeria developed the minisett technique to overcome the critical problem of the unavailability of good quality seed yam by improving the rate of multiplication of white yam (NRCRI, 2004). The technique increased the multiplication ratio from the traditional 1:5 to 1:30 (Orkwor et al., 2000). The minisett technique involves the cutting of mother seed tubers into small setts (minisetts) of g which must possess a reasonable amount of peel (periderm) from which sprouting can occur. The minisetts are treated with chemicals to prevent damage from diseases and pests, planted, and managed to produce small whole seed tubers; these in turn are planted to produce ware tubers for food. A number of agrochemicals comprising fungicides, insecticides and nematicides are used to protect the small cut yam setts in the minisett technique for seed yam production and has been reported as not being readily available to farmers (IITA, 2014). Again, some farmers are concerned that the agrochemicals may be poisonous and costly thereby hindering use of the technique. Thus decision of use of technologies is dependent on how farmers perceive of technology. Perception can be described as the process by which we received information or stimuli from the environment and transform it into psychological awareness. Similarly, on the basis of perception of an innovation, a farmer makes a response/decision towards it. The farmer s choice of action (decision) will depend on his evaluation of this and other outcomes, in term of personal perspectives. Thus it is important to know farmers perception of technologies for better understanding of their decision to adopt or not. Focusing on farmer perceptions of technologies may provide a better understanding of technology adoption since they deal with the technologies and probably perceive technologies differently from researchers and extension agents. Traditionally, use of agrochemicals for production of arable crops like yam, cassava, maize etc was not popular. However, many crop production technologies introduced to farmers by extension agents have in recent times promoted the use of agrochemicals among farmers. Again, diverse prevailing perception of agrochemical use in farm innovations could affect the acceptance of such innovation. There is also a growing concern among farmers that certain agrochemicals used in crop production are very costly, unaffordable and risky to handle. If such NJAFE VOL. 12 No. 4,

2 opinions are popular for a seed yam production innovation like yam minisett technology, they can affect its adoption. Generally, farmers use innovations based on common observation that they are simple, affordable safe as well as economically gainful. If they perceive doubts on these attributes, they become conservative and in many instances refuse to use such innovations. In view of the foregoing, this study seeks to examine farmers perception of agrochemical use in seed yam production in Umuahia, South Local Government Area of Abia State, Nigeria. Its specific objectives are to describe the socio economic characteristics of yam farmers, ascertain farmers knowledge of common agrochemicals used for seed yam production, examine farmers perception of agrochemicals use in seed yam production and determine socio economic factors influencing farmers perception of agrochemical use in seedyam production in the area. METHODOLOGY The study was carried out in Umuahia South Local Government Area (LGA) of Abia State, Nigeria. The LGA has a land area of 140km 2 and a population of 138,570 people at 2006 census. The climatic condition of Umuahia South could be described as typical equatorial with two main seasons, which are the dry and rainy seasons. Major food crops grown by the people include cassava, yam, cocoa yam, maize, local beans and various types of vegetables while cash crops are cocoa, oil palm, kola nut, rubber, plantain, and banana. The people raise fish and various kinds of livestock. Two-stage sampling procedure was adopted in selecting respondents for the study. The first stage was selection of 10 out of 20 communities that make up the study area by simple random sampling technique. The next stage was random sampling of 20 respondents from each of the 10 sampled communities in the area. These procedures gave a sample size of 120 respondents for the study. Data for the study were generated from the respondents through structured questionnaires. Farmers knowledge of agrochemical was captured with 4-point Likert type measurement scale. These included very much knowledge assigned the highest scale of 4 graded downwards to very little knowledge with lowest scale of 1. The values of the 4 responses were added and further divided by 4 to obtain 2.50 which was regarded as the benchmark for decision rule. Thus knowledge mean scores below or above the 2.5 benchmark indicated the level of knowledge as either much or litle respectively. Farmers perception of agrochemical use in seed yam production was equally elicited through two category responses(agree and disagree) to set of statements. The data obtained for the study were then analysed using descriptive statistics as well as ordinary least square regression analysis. The implicit form of the OLS regression analysis is indicated thus: Y == f(x 1, X 2, X 3, X 4, X 5, X 6, X 7, X 8, X, ei) Where: Y= Farmers perception of agrochemical use for seedyam production X 1= age of the respondent X 2= sex of the farmer X 3=marital status (married=1, others=0) X 4= Educational status X 5= membership of cooperatives X 6= average annual income for seed yam (recorded in naira) X 7= frequency of extension contact X 8= farming experience (recorded in year) X 9=farm size (recorded in hectare) ei= error term RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Socio-economic characteristics of farmers Results presented in Table 1 shows that 38.3% of the farmers were females and 61.7% were males. Analysis of the respondent s sex revealed that the farming activity in the study area was dominated by males. This was expected since yam farming requires lots of energy and is culturally driven by the men. The results corroborate the findings of Oluwatusin and Shitu (2014) that yam production is dominated by males due to the type of labour requirement. The high participation of men could be attributed to core cultural values which placed more household responsibilities on men than the women. The results from Table 1 also showed that those within ages of years constituted 53.3% of the respondents while the mean age of the respondents was years. This means that majority of the farmers were ageing. Analysis of the respondents age structure shows that more than half of farmers were no longer within the very active working age. This shows that yam farmers within the study area were no longer very active and virile and this is expected to affect their productivity. Table 1 also reveals that most (65.8%) of the farmers in the area were married while 9.2% were single and 20.0% were widowed. The high proportion of the married seed yam producers could be attributed to the fact that NJAFE VOL. 12 No. 4,

3 respondents required helping hands to carryout tedious process of yam production. This is also an indication that most farmers depends on family members as cheap source of labour. The distribution of household size of the respondents gave a mean household size of 5 members per household. It further shows that more than half (57.5%) of the respondents has household size of 6-10 members. Also the family size constitutes a major source of labour in seed yam production. This explains need to increase the number of hands working in the farms. Waziri et al. (2014) suggested hired labour should be used if increase in yam production is to be attained. Farmer s educational attainments showed that 15.0% of the farmers had no formal education; while more than half (52.5%) attended primary school. Moreover, 20.8% of the respondents had Ordinary National Diploma (OND), Higher National Diploma (HND), Bachelor of Science (BSc) certificates and above. The above results evidently indicated that most of the respondents had formal (primary school and above) education, and this is expected to have positive influence on the adoption of improved technologies such as agro-chemicals which could increase farm productivity. However, Oluwatusin and Shitu (2014) had reported high proportion of illiteracy among yam farmers in Western Nigeria. Table 1: Distribution of respondents according to their socio economic characteristics Variable Frequency Percentage Variable Frequency Percentage Sex Marital status Female Single Male Married Age Widowed Divorced Household size and above Mean 5.2 Mean Membership of Organizations Educational level Yes Non-formal No FSLC Farming experience WAEC/GCE OND HND/BSc & Above Annual income (N) 16 and above ,000 and less Mean , , Farm size (ha) 101, , Over 150, Mean Extension Visits Weekly and above Fortnightly Mean 2.10 Monthly Quarterly Yearly Source: Field Survey Data, The results further showed that 49.9% of the respondents had farming experience of years while 23.3% indicated between 6-10 years experience in farming. This implied that the farmers in the study area had been engaged in one form of agriculture or the other which means that they must have acquired good farming experience. Arimi (2014) opined that higher number of years of experience in farming helps a farmer to understand and tackle the complications of the enterprise. The table showed that the mean farm size cultivated by farmers in the area was 2.10 hectares. Moreover, 68.8% of the respondents cultivated between 1.0 and 2 hectares while 20% had less than 1hectare of land cultivated implying that most of the farmers were small holders and subsistence farmers. This situation neither allowed them to engage in large scale production nor have access to credit facilities. Also, Table 1 showed the distribution of respondents based on level of participation in social organizations. Results revealed that 74.2% of the respondents belonged to one farmers association or the other. One of the roles of the farmer s organizations is to boost knowledge sharing among members. However, not all farmers are aware of the importance of being a member of such organizations. These farmers organizations are effective channels of communicating information to farmers (Arimi, 2014). NJAFE VOL. 12 No. 4,

4 Results in the Table further showed that majority (64.2%) of the respondents earned below 50,000 per annum. The implication of the finding is that most farmers in the study are low income earners and may have limited access to credit facilities. This is because access to credit is enhanced by high income earning capacity. This finding shares a common view with Alabi et al., (2007) who reported that a farmer with a profitable supplementary income could become an early adopter of new technology that may require demanding for credit facilities. Distribution of respondents according to the frequency of extension visits showed that majority (55.83%) had extension agents visiting them only once a year while 23.33% of the respondents had quarterly visits from extension agents. Only 5.8% and 13.3% had fortnightly and monthly visits from extension respectively. This is an indication that majority of the farmers did not have access to current agricultural information that should come through extension agents. A similar result was reported by Nnadi and Akwinu, (2006) and Waziri et al. (2014) who indicated that low level of extension contact remained largely responsible for the low level adoption of new technologies. Respondents knowledge of common agrochemicals used for seed yam production Table 2 below shows respondents knowledge of common agrochemical used in seed yam production in the study area. From the results, the mean score value of 2.26 was less than the benchmark of 2.5 thus suggesting that generally farmers have little knowledge of common agrochemicals used in seed yam production. Specifically farmers have much knowledge of common agrochemicals used in weed control (2.68) and inorganic fertilizer (especially NPK) (2.67). This high rating could be attributed to the common practice of weed control as well as the high use of inorganic fertilizer for crops production by farmers in the area. The findings agreed with Nonga et al. (2011) who reported that most farmers have knowledge of the type, handling and applications of the agrochemicals which they usually obtain from the agrochemical shop owners. Nevertheless, it could be observed from the results that the farmers had litle knowledge of the common agrochemicals used for insect control (2.35); disease control (1.95) as well as limes (1.75) used to control soil acidity. Similarly, the results revealed that more than one-third (38.5%) of the respondents had no knowledge of the common agrochemicals used for seed yam production. This raises concern on the farmers handling of such high risk products without basic knowledge. Nonga et al. (2011) had also reported that majority of the farmers (76%) were unaware of the effects of pesticides to the environment in Uganda. Table 2: Common knowledge of agrochemicals used for seed yam production Knowledge Agrochemicals So much Much Little No Mean (x) Agrochemicals for weed control Agrochemicals for insect control Agrochemicals for disease control Limes for acid soil Inorganic fertilizer Mean 19(16%) 32(26.7%) 23(19%) 46(38.5%) 2.26 Source: Computed from Field Data, Farmers Perception of agrochemicals used in seed yam production Table 3 shows the farmers perceptions of agrochemicals use in seed yam production in the study area. The results show that the more than half (66%) of the respondents perceived that agrochemicals are dangerous to humans and as a result, do not use them in seed yam production. Majority (75.8%) perceived that the agrochemicals are not readily available especially in their local markets. Similarly majority (77.5%) perceived that agrochemicals are costly and unaffordable. However, only few (17.5%) perceived that agrochemicals negatively affect the soil while most (82.5%) respondents did not consider the agrochemicals to be dangerous to the soil. Again, most of the respondents (79.2%) perceived that the agrochemicals do not cause decay of the seed yams while few (20.8%) insisted that agrochemicals contribute to seed yam decay in the field. Finally, more than half (64.2%) of the respondents perceived that agrochemicals do not reduce yield of seed yams while over one-third of the respondents (35.8%) maintained that use of agrochemicals reduce yield of seed yam. Lami and Abraham (2013) had earlier reported that most farmers in Makurdi perceived that use of agrochemicals was abused and that they can damage the environment. Respondents in the study area did not appear to have sufficient knowledge of the safety implications of agrochemicals. Factors associated with Farmers perceptions of agrochemicals use in seed yam production An ordinary least square regression analysis of factors associated with farmers perceptions of agrochemicals use in seed yam production was conducted. The results showed R 2 value of indicating that about 61% of the variation in the farmers perceptions concerning agrochemicals use in seed yam production was accounted for by the independent variables considered in the study while the remaining 39% is accounted for by other variable left out or not accommodated in the model. The F-ratio was significant at 5% showing that the regression model has a good fit. Table 3: Distribution of Respondents perceptions of agrochemicals used in seed yam production NJAFE VOL. 12 No. 4,

5 Perception Agree % Disagree % They are dangerous to humans They are not readily available They are costly and unaffordable They destroy the soil They cause yam decay They reduce the yam yield Source: Computed from Field Data, The coefficients of age (0.023), marital status (0.362), education level (0.007), farming experience (0.059), farm size (0.129), and annual income (2.594) were significant at 10%, 5% 5%, 5%, 5% and 1% respectively. These listed variables were positively related to the farmers perceptions of agrochemicals use in seed yam production in the study area. Increase in age of the farmers could make for more maturity of the minds in understanding the necessity of the agrochemicals in seed yam production. High educational level had positive influence on the perception of farmers concerning agrochemical use. Similarly, most of the respondents who had formal education, had positive perceptions towards new innovations such as usage of fertilizer, agro-chemicals, high yielding varieties etc., which have potential to increase farm productivity (Osuagwu, 2016). Increase in farm size demands for more labour which may not be available hence the need for more agrochemical. According to Okoffo et al. (2016), farm size had a positive significant effect on decisions in pesticides application. The result can be explained on the basis that a farmer with large farm size normally takes more time to apply pesticides. The results also showed that increase in farming experience favoured the use of agrochemicals in seed yam production. It was similarly reported by Kabir and Ranais (2012) that farming experience increases the likelihood of adoption of best practices by experienced farmers since they have both knowledge and adequate information. Again, increase in farm income also encouraged the use of agrochemicals because as farmers made more money from the seed yam production enterprise, they were able to buy and use the agrochemicals. Table 4: Factors affecting farmers perceptions of agrochemicals use in seed yam production Parameter Coefficient Standard error t-statistic Probability. Constant Sex Age Marital status Household size Educational status Farming Experience Farm size Coop. Membership Annual Income 2.594E Extension Visits R-squared Adjusted R-squared S.E. of the Estimate Durbin-Watson F-statistic Prob Source: Computed from Field Data, CONCLUSION Analysis of the respondents knowledge of common agrochemicals in seed yam production showed high rating for agrochemicals used in weed control and inorganic fertilizer. The farmers perceived that agrochemicals are dangerous for use, not readily available and costly and does not destroy the soil, neither caused the decay of yams nor low crop yield. The major determinants of factors affecting farmers perceptions of agrochemicals included age, marital status, education level, farming experience, farm size, and income. It was therefore recommended that both extension agents and other relevant government agencies should educate farmers the safety measures in use of agrochemicals. Also, extension agents should assist in advising farmers on where to obtain the needed agrochemicals especially at cheap prices. REFERENCES Agbeje, G. O. and Oyebami, B Survey of adoption of yam minisett technology in south western Nigeria. Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment. 3(2): NJAFE VOL. 12 No. 4,

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