Capacity Building Needs of Farmers for Safe Agro-Chemical Use/Application in Niger State

Abstract

In order to determines the capacity building needs of farmer for safe agro-chemical use in Niger State, the study examined awareness of safety measures and training needs of farmers. One hundred and twenty farmers were randomly selected from three local government areas in the state. Validated interview schedule with reliability coefficient of 0.89 was used to collect data. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. All the respondents were aware of wearing of protective clothing and avoiding drinking/eating during spraying, safety measure such as avoiding off label use (7.50%). The most widely practiced safety measure was avoiding ingesting or inhaling chemicals (91.67%), while the least practiced safety measure was avoiding off label use 2.50%, reason given for not practicing some safety measures includes heaviness of protective clothing 17.50% and unreadable nature of instruction labels 14.17%. Major areas of training needs of the respondents were application 61.67% and handling 52.50% of agro-chemical. A positive significant correlation existed between education r=0.461, farming experience r=0.337, farm income r=0.307 and practice of safety measures. It was therefore recommended that enlightenment campaign should be carried out in the State to raise awareness level for safe use of agro-chemicals in the agricultural transformation programme, while the characteristics of the instruction labels should be boldly written to facilitate reading and practice of safety measures.