1. Introduction

Cocoa tree (Theobroma Cacao) belongs to the family Sterculiaceae. It is the first major economic tree crop in Nigeria and significant in terms of foreign earning, generation of internal revenue as well as employment at level of farmers and traders.[1]. However,[2] asserted that the major setback to increased cocoa production since about 35 years ago had been the incidence of diseases and pests, rural-urban migration of able bodied people, neglect of agriculture and natural hazard such as fire outbreak on cocoa plantations. This position confirmed by[3] that annual losses of the world production due to diseases and pest (especially black and brown pod diseases) were 10 percent and as high as 90 percent in Cameroon and Nigeria. Other diseases of cocoa include cocoa swollen shoot virus (CSSV), cocoa mottle leaf virus and cocoa yellow mosaic virus. The diseases are caused by insect pests (causative agents) such as Thrips: Selenothrips rubrocinetus Sel; Mealybug:

Plannoecoccus citri Risso; Psyllid: Messohomotaina tessnni Aulm; Black Cocoa Mirids: Distantiella theobroma Dist; and Brown Cocoa Mirids: Sahlbergella Singularis Haglund.

The incidence of these diseases and pests and its devastating effects on cocoa farms and farmers’ income has led to the long history of pesticide usage on cocoa farms in Nigeria. Some of the insecticides that have been used annually since 1957 in different volumes and at various times till present are: lindane ( BHC), endosulfan or thiodan (6,7,8,9,10,10-hexachloro-1,5,5a,6,9,9a-hexahydro-6,9-methano-2,4,3-benzodioxathiepin-3-oxide),diazinon(0,0-diethyl-0-[6-methyl-2-(1-methylethyl)-4-pyrimidi-nyl]phosphorothioate},propoxur(2-isopropoxyphenyl-N-methyl-carbamate) anddioxacarb{2-(1,3-dioxolan-2-yl)-phenylmethyl-carbamate)[4]. These chemicals play prominent roles in effective control of cocoa diseases and pests, however, they have been found to constitute health hazards to human being, organisms and environment due to their active ingredients and inert material. Several studies have documented the adverse health hazards of the pesticides’ usage as a series of chronic end-points including prostate cancer[5];[6]; neurotoxic[7]; immunotoxic[8]; endocrine[9]; developmental effect[10] and reproductive defect[11]. However,[12] described exposure to pesticides and other agro-chemicals as one of the major occupation injuries in the agricultural sector. This explains why[13] recommended some precautionary measures when applying agro chemical like putting on protective clothing: boots and rubbers gloves, wearing of apron, not eating, smoking and drinking when using chemicals and covering food and water to avoid contamination. It has been observed and established that farmers in many part of Nigeria did not pay attention to the safety measures in the use of chemicals ([2],[14],[15] and[16] ). Furthermore,[17] have confirmed that cocoa farmers in the Nigeria are occupationally exposed to the toxic nature of insecticide application for mirid control in their cacao plantations having found insecticide residues (diazinon, lindane, propoxur and endosulfan) in the blood serum and domestic water source of cocoa farmers in their respective communities. Based on the aforementioned problems stated above, this study is making an attempt to address the following research questions. What is the knowledge level of the precautionary measures against chemical injuries taught to the farmers and what are operational habits with the associated health problems of cacao farmers in Osun and Edo States. Therefore, in this study, we reported the comparative analysis of the socioeconomic characteristics of cacao farmers, types of chemical used, farmer’s knowledge of precautionary measures, operational habits exhibited during agro-chemical usage and occurrence of health related problems among cocoa farmers in Osun and Edo States, Nigeria.

Based on the above stated objectives, the following hypotheses were formulated and tested:

Ⅰ. There is no significant relationship between farmer’s knowledge of precautionary measures and operational habits in the use of chemicals.

II. There is no significant relationship between the health related problems of cocoa farmers and knowledge of precautionary measures.

III. There is no significant difference in the types of chemicals used, knowledge of precautionary measures; operational habits; health hazards and demographic socio-economic characteristics among cocoa farmers in Osun and Edo States.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. The Study Area

The study was purposively conducted in Osun and Edo States because of their significant contribution to cocoa production in Nigeria and being part of major cocoa producing states in Nigeria.[1]. Osun State is made up of thirty Local Government Areas (LGAs). It is situated in the South western part of Nigeria. It lies between longitude 21⁰ 65’ and 6⁰ 75’ and latitudes 6⁰ 59’ and 9⁰ 00’ North. It is bounded in the East and West respectively by Ondo and Oyo State. While Kwara and Ogun States are its boundaries in the North and South respectively. Whereas,Edo State composed of eighteen LGAs. It is located between 6⁰ and 8⁰ North of the equator and bounded by longitude 6⁰0 8^‘and 6⁰ 58^‘. It is bounded in the west by Ondo State, in the North by Kogi State and in the South and East by Delta State respectively. Osun State has landed area of 9,251 square kilometers with population of 3,423,535, while Edo State has landed area of 17,802 square kilometers with population of 3,218,332[18];[19]. The predominant population of Osun State is Yoruba but Edo State is made of different ethnic groups such as Ishan, Edo and Yoruba. Osun vegetation comprises of Rainforest zone, derived Savannah and Savannah while Edo State vegetation is mainly Rainforest. The people of Osun and Edo States are mostly farmers who engaged in cultivation of both cash and foods crops and rearing of livestock. Two major cocoa producing Local Government Areas (LGAs) in each state were purposively selected. Ife East and Ife South LGAs were selected in Osun, while Ovia North East and Ovia South West LGAs were selected in Edo state. Six villages were randomly selected from each of these LGAs. Twenty cocoa farmers were selected from the checklist of cocoa farmers under the extension coverage in each selected villages using simple random sampling technique. A total of 240 cocoa farmers in the two states were interviewed using structured, pretested and validated interview schedule. The interviewed was conducted between May and September 2010. Data were elicited on the types of chemicals, knowledge ofprecautionary measures, operational habits, health related problems and socio-economic characteristics. Descriptive statistics such as frequency counts, percentages, mean and standard deviation were used to describe the data collected, while inferential statistic such as Pearson’s correlation co-efficient(r) and ANOVA were used to test the formulated hypotheses. The cocoa farmers‘ knowledge ofprecautionary measures was measured through the use of likert scale such as strongly agreed, agreed, undecided, disagreed and strongly disagreed. To determine the level of knowledge of precautionary measures, grand mean was used as adopted by[20]. Above grand mean score was recorded as high level of knowledge and below grand mean score as low level of knowledge.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Socio-Economic Characteristics

Table 1 shows that (54.2%) of the respondents in Osun State were between the ages range of 41 and 60 years. Similarly in Edo State, 52.5 percent were between 41and 60 years. The implication of these findings was that cocoa farmers in the two states were fairly old people, which must be replaced with young and able-bodied people who can withstand the back-bending and standing nature of cocoa farm operation like spraying of chemicals. Majority of the farmers in Osun (97.5) and Edo State (96.7%) were males. The findings were expected because of the involvement of women in other activities like planting of arable crops, processing and trading. It may also be attributed to the tenure system where female right to land ownership is limited[21]. In Osun State, (43.0%) had no formal education, while in Edo State (53.3%) had no formal education. In addition, majority of cocoa farmers in two states could not read the instruction on the chemical label. The low level of education may have adverse effect on farmer’s operational habits and health hazards in relation to chemical usage especially in Edo State.

The majority of the cocoa farmers in Osun State (93.4%) Edo state (80.0%) had between 1 and 10 hectares of farm land. This implies that cocoa farmers in Osun and Edo States were smallholder farmers. The implication drawn was based on the criteria set by[22] that all farmers who operate on land less than 10 hectares are small-scale farmers. Higher number of cocoa farmers in Osun and in Edo States employed between 1 and 4 family labour. In addition, the majority of the farmers in Osun State (55.0%) and Edo State (56.6%) employed between 1 and 4 hired labour. Most of the labourers would have been expose to chemical poison substance and other activities that brought them in contact with pesticide. The cumulative effect of this exposure might result in health problems. These findings also corroborated previous findings by[23], who concluded that early in life exposure to pesticide led to greater risk of cancer, neurodevelopment; impairment and immunodys function.

Table 1 also shows that 56.7% of the respondents in Osun State realized income of less N51, 000 on their farms annually, whereas in Edo State majority of cocoa farmers 55.0% realized income above N51, 000. The findings reveal that cocoa farmers have more income which might be due to increase in price of cocoa in international market. It would be expected that farmers with high income should be able to afford necessary protective materials needed when using chemicals. However, Farmers used the money realized on social prestige. Detailed analysis showed that majority of cocoa farmers in Osun State (50.5%) have information about pests and disease problems, chemical usage and precautionary measures to follow when using chemicals from other farmers. Others include extension agents, sales agents, and cocoa merchants. In Edo State, 75.5% cocoa farmers got their information from other farmers. Other sources include cocoa merchants (28.0%), sales agents and extension agents.

The analysis reveals that other farmers were major source of information. Other sources such as cocoa merchants and chemical sales agents would have been much more concerned with making money from their sales rather than training of farmers on proper handling of chemicals. Findings on extension agents’ contact with cocoa farmers show that in Osun State, 65% had no contact with extension agents to discuss chemicals usage and precautionary measures to follow when using chemicals, while in Edo State, 96.6% of the cocoa farmers had no extension contact. From the findings it can be deduced that there was relatively low extension contact in the two states but there were high level of extensions contact among cocoa farmers in Osun State than Edo State. The implication of this finding is that farmers in Edo State were not exposed to knowledge of precautionary measures through extension personnel because the majority (97.0%) had no contact with extension agents. This was supported by[24] who found that in Nigeria there are many farmers that are not reached by extension agents and are therefore not exposed to new technology in agriculture.

3.2. Type of Agro-Chemicals Used by Cocoa Farmers

The majority of cocoa farmers in Osun State (98%) used copper sulphate, 95% used benzene hexachloride (gammalin 20), 73.3% used diazinon (basudin), 55% used cuprous oxide (perenox) and 46.7% used lindane (kokotine) (Table 2). In Edo state, the majority of cocoa farmers used recommended chemical like copper sulphate (87.5%) gammalin 20 (86.7%); basudin 600EC (76.7%) and ridomil (61.2%).

Moreover, the majority of the respondents in Osun and Edo States indicated that chemicals like perenox, copper sulphate and ridomil are not hazardous in nature. While chemicals like gammalin 20 and basudin were claimed to be moderately hazardous in Edo State. Only gammalin 20 was claimed to be moderately hazardous in Osun while Basudin 60 EC was highly hazardous. The findings are contrary to the classification of chemicals based on level of toxicity by[25], which stipulates that chemicals like Aldrin (Aldrex 40) and diazinon (basudin 600EC) were classified as highly hazardous while chemicals like benezene hexachloride (gammalin 20), Kokotine, Bordeaux mixtures (copper sulphate) cuprous oxide (perenox) and cerbendazin (ridomil) are moderately hazardous. The implication of the above findings was that the majority of cocoa farmers in the two states were using hazardous chemicals, with little or no attention to the safety measures, which may have adverse effect on their health. These findings agreed with those reported by[26] and[27] that cocoa farmers used agro-chemicals, which are toxic in nature but with little attention to the precautionary measures.

3.3. Farmers Perception of Precautionary Measures

The mean perception scores were ranked in descending order of hazard/injury to farmers’ health (Table 3). In Osun State, the operational habit of eating during the spraying of chemical was ranked first as being most injurious to health, followed by washing and cleaning of spraying equipments after use. Others include drinking during spraying and spraying against wind direction to prevent chemical contact with body. Similarly, these were followed by wearing protective clothing during spraying of chemicals to prevent body exposure to chemical, not taking produce from the farm within 24 hours after spraying of chemicals to prevent eating contaminated food, washing of contaminated clothes immediately after spraying, burying or burning of empty chemical containers after use and burying of any food contaminated during spraying of chemical respectively to avoid taken poison.

In Edo State, eating during spraying of chemicals is injurious to health was similarly ranked first, while drinking during spraying of chemicals is injurious to health came next. This was followed by smoking during spraying of chemical as injurious to health, washing and cleaning of spraying equipments is necessary after spraying, bath immediately after spraying chemical is necessary. Wearing of protective clothing during spraying to prevent body exposure to chemicals was perceived good and necessary, and spraying should not be directed towards the direction of air, not good to enter the farm within 24 hours after spraying of chemical to prevent eating contaminated food. Furthermore, burying or burning of empty containers after spraying is necessary and disposal of food contaminated during spraying were also ranked accordingly.

Table 1. Distribution of respondents according to socioeconomic characteristics (N=240)

Table 2. Distribution of respondents according to the types to chemical used

In general, the results shows that cocoa farmers in Osun State had a better perception of all, except two of the various precautionary measures which their means less than grand mean of 2.16 compared with Edo State, which six of the precautionary measures having mean scores less 2.16. This is an indication that cocoa farmers in Osun had higher perception of almost all precautionary measures compared to Edo State cocoa farmers, which might be due to the differences in the level of education between Osun State and Edo state cocoa farmers.

Table 3. Ranking of farmers’ knowledge of precautionary measures based on mean scores in order of hazard to health Precautionary measures Osun StateMeans Rank Edo StateMean Rank Eating during spraying chemical injurious to health 2.81 1st 2.55 1st Washing and cleaning spraying equipment is necessary after spraying chemicals. 2.79 2nd 2.31 4th Drinking during spraying chemicals injurious to health 2.77 3rd 2.54 2nd Smoking during spraying chemical is injurious to health 2.70 4th 2.47 3rd Spraying should not be directed towards directions of air 2.65 5th 1.87 7th Wearing of protective clothes during prevent body exposure to chemical. 2.38 6th 2.06 6th Washing of contaminated clothes immediately after spraying is necessary. 2.37 7th 2.19 5th Bath immediately after spraying of chemical is necessary 2.34 8th 1.82 8th It is not good to enter the farm within 24 hours after spraying chemical to prevent eating contaminated food 2,29 9th 1.66 9th Burying or burning of empty chemical containers after spraying is necessary 2.08 10th 1.65 10th Contaminated food during spraying should be buriesGrand mean =2.16 1.28 11th 1.63 11th

3.4. Operational Habits

Data in Table 4 reveal usual habits of the cocoa farmers on display when applying agro-chemicals on their farms. In Osun State majority of the respondents (84.2%) indicated not wearing protective clothing’s like glove, glasses and boots. Similarly 81.3% indicated not wearing protective clothing. This report was in line with[14] who reported that only a small percentage of farmers actually wear protective apparel when using chemicals. Majority of cocoa farmers in Osun (61.7%) and Edo (68.3%) states were in the habit of eating during spraying of chemicals, and 75.0% and 75.8% of cocoa farmers in Osun and Edo States respectively, were drinking during application of chemicals. Similarly 51.7% and 59.7 were smoking during spraying of chemical in Osun and Edo States respectively. These are inline with[24] who reported that the majority of cocoa farmers in southwestern Nigeria were in the habit of drinking and eating during the spaying of agro-chemical which usually exposed them to health related problems

Furthermore, the majority of the respondents in Osun State (59.2%) and in Edo state (60.0%) claimed taking their bath immediately after spraying of chemical. In Osun (88.3%) and Edo (79.2%) states claimed not washing their contaminated clothes after spraying of chemicals. This may constitute health problems to them because of the fact that contaminated apparels are in direct contact with body hence can cause body irritation.

Majority of cocoa farmers in Osun State (54.0%) and Edo state (68.3%) stored their chemicals in living room and together with food stuff. Moreover, 60.8 percent cocoa farmers in Osun State and 71.7% in Edo State washed and re used empty containers; This report was in line with[14] who reported that 92% of farmers stored pesticides inside their house even in the bedroom in Katsina state, Nigeria. This practice exposes farmers to food poisoning, which may have effect on their health. Majority of farmers in Osun State (56.7% and 65.8%) were involved in other habits such as mixing of chemicals with their bare hand and removal of blockage with mouth respectively, whereas 60.8% and 62.8%does so in Edo state.

Table 4. Distribution of respondents according to operational habits exhibited using chemicals

3.5. Health Related Problems to the Use of Agro-Chemicals

Table 5 shows that majority of the cocoa farmers in Osun State (64.2%) and the 50.0 percent of cocoa farmers in Edo State were aware that chemicals are dangerous to health. In view of this, farmers were expected to be careful on how to handle agro-chemicals but in reality they do not. Above average (54.2%) of cocoa farmers in Edo State indicated that they have experienced one health problem or the other as a result of exposure to chemical toxicity compared to below average (40.0%) in Osun State. This might be as a result of higher level perception of Osun State farmers about the precautionary measures to be taken when using agro-chemical.

Those that claimed health related problem when using chemicals in Osun State mentioned problems like tearing and redness of eye, cough, difficulty in breathing, excessive sweating, headache and yellowing of skin. The Edo State health related problems mentioned include tearing and redness of eye, body itching, lack of muscle coordination, yellowing of skin, cough and difficult, in breathing. The findings indicated that cocoa farmers in Osun and Edo states suffered almost all and the same type of health problems except yellowing of skin, which was more common in Edo states (39.2%) than in Osun states (5.8%). This might be due to exposure of the body and high rate of using hand to mix chemicals in Edo State. It was also deduced from these findings that 59.6% of the farmers have one ailment/illness or the other, which might be as a result of improper use of chemicals. The result was in line with[11];[16] and[26] claimed that major disease occurring in agricultural works are infectious disorders, such as respiratory infections, dematosis, allegies, cancer, illness arising from repetitive work.

Table 5. Distribution of health related problems in order to frequencies of occurrence among farmers Health related variables Osun State Edo State Total F % F % F % Tearing and redness eyes 63 52.5 80 66.7 143 59.6 Lack of muscle coordination 59 45.8 71 59.2 126 52.5 Body itching 55 45.8 71 59.2 126 52.5 Cough 47 39.3 23 19.2 70 29.2 Difficulty in breathing 28 23.3 32 26.7 60 25.0 Excessive sweating 27 22.5 35 29.2 62 25.8 Headache 24 20.0 30 25.0 54 18.8 Diarrhea 17 14.2 15 12.5 32 13.3 Stomach cramps 9 7.5 16 13.3 25 10.4 Vomiting 7 5.8 6 5.0 13 5.4 Yellow skin 7 5.8 47 39.2 54 22.5

3.6. Testing of Hypothesis

Table 6 showed the correlation coefficient, which establish that at P <0.05 level of significant, there exist a positive and significant relationship between farmers’ knowledge of precautionary measures and operational habits. This implies that farmers who are knowledgeable about precautionary measures to follow when using chemical were exhibiting good/positive operational habits when using chemicals.[14] obtained similar result that awareness of precautionary have relationship with practice.

Table 6. Summary of linear correlation of knowledge of precautionary measures with operational habits, health related problems and socio-economic characteristics

Table 7. Analysis of variance showing the results of difference in type of chemicals, knowledge of precautionary measures, operational habits, occurrence of health related problems and socio-economic characteristics of cocoa farmers in Osun State and Edo State

Furthermore, the result shows positive and significant relationship between level of education, extension contact, sources of information and farmers’ knowledge of precautionary measures. The health related problems (r=0.120) have positive but non-significant relationship with knowledge of precautionary measures. This indicated that the health related problems of the farmers during chemical application had no relationship with knowledge of precautionary measures. This was in line with[12] reports that there are limited reliable data on the extent of pesticide related illness both in industrialized and developing countries due to difficulties in the accurate reports of cases.

The results of hypothesis testing using ANOVA revealed that there was significant difference between knowledge of precautionary measures to be followed when using chemicals among cocoa farmers in Osun and Edo States. Furthermore, there were significant differences between some socioeconomic characteristics such as farm size, labour size, annual income, and extension contact of cocoa farmers in Osun and Edo States. Whereas, there were no significant differences between the types of chemicals used, operational habits and health hazards among cocoa farmers in Osun and Edo States. Moreover, there were no significant differences between some socio-economic characteristics such as age, level of education, and sources of information among cocoa farmers in Osun and Edo States.

4. Conclusions

4.1. Conclusions

Evidence from the study has shown that cocoa farmers in Osun and Edo States were exposed to the same types of recommended chemicals like copper sulphate; gammalin 20, basudin, kokotine and aldrex 40. But the use of perenox was higher in Osun State while ridomil was more used in Edo State. Cocoa farmers in Osun State are more knowledgeable about precautionary measures to be taken in order to avoid chemical contamination and exposure hazards than Edo State cocoa farmers. Despite this fact, most of the farmers in the two states were involved in negative habit which often resulted in farmers being exposed to chemical harmful effects. The majority of farmers in the two states were in the habits of eating; drinking; smoking and spraying towards the direction of air. The farmers’ health related problems includes redness and tearing of eye, body itching, cough, body pains and headache. The major sources of information on precautionary measures in the two states were other farmers. The effects of extension agents were more felt in Osun State than in Edo State.

4.2. Recommendations

Based on the major conclusions, the followingrecommendations for improving the knowledge of cocoa farmers are very important.

• There is need the for agricultural development programmes (ADPs). The Ministry of Agriculture, Cocoa Development Unit(CDU),Commissions, Non-Governmental Organizations and other agencies related to cocoa production to be directly or indirectly involved in the training of farmers on safety handling of recommended chemicals and health hazards involved if carelessly handled. This training should involve use of posters, drama, songs, campaign and increasing frequency of call on the farmers by extension agents.

• There is need the to re-orientate the extension agents to shift their focus to training of farmers on safety handling of chemicals and long term effect of chemicals on human health.

• Farmers to be enlightened through introduction of more adult education literacy centers by stakeholders in order to broaden the knowledge of the farmers and to train the farmers to be able to know how to read and write at least in their local language.

• Farmers must be taught on adequate ways of disposing empty containers of pesticides.

• The government should encourage FederalEnvironmental Protection Agency (FEPA) to intensify its efforts on chemical registration and control with a view to categorizing them according to their safety status. Those chemicals needed to be banned or restricted should be categorized and the level of toxicity should be made known to farmers and other chemical users.