Agrochemicals Usage by Farmers in Central Senatorial District of Gombe State, North Eastern Nigeria
Publication Date: 18/10/2018
Author(s): Umar Dangiwa Modibbo, Aminu Muhammad.
Volume/Issue: Volume 1 , Issue 1 (2018)
Abstract:
This study was conducted in the central senatorial district of gombe state in north eastern Nigeria with objective of determining the usage of agrochemicals among the farmers in the study area, demography and the level of utilizations of agrochemicals are all part of this study’s objectives in specific terms, however multi stage sampling technique was employed where by in the first stage three strategic agricultural towns (SAT) was randomly sampled from each of the local government in the study area, Akko : Kumo, Pindiga and Kembu while in Yamaltu deba : Deba, Kuri and Dadin kowa was selected The second stage involve a purposive selection of five villages from each of the SAT to make a total of 30 villages more so 25 different persons were randomly selected from 25 different household giving a total of 750 which was used as a sample size for this study. Focus discussion group was used to determine the level of utilization of agrochemicals in the area in which a descriptive statistics is used to analyzed the data generated, however the result of this study reveals fertilizer as the commonly use agrochemical in the study area with 80% of the respondent indicated the use of it and ranked first which is followed by herbicide (67%) and the least agrochemical used is the nematicide (4.0%). The level of utilization of the agrochemicals in the study area shows that the frequently used agrochemical is the herbicide (mean value = 2.350) and ranked first, pesticide (mean value = 2.233), insecticide (mean value = 2.126). The demography of the respondents indicated that the respondents are active population within the age range of 18 – 60 years (90%) and majority of them are married (73%) and male by gender (87%) with good formal education (80%), their household is comparatively bigger with at least 7 - 9 members (47%). In conclusion the most commonly use agrochemical is the fertilizer and the most frequently used one is the herbicide while the least use agrochemical is the nematicide. Community leaders and all the stake holders in agriculture should encourage farmers to imbibe good farming practices to maintain soil fertility in the study area, Extension agents should educate farmers on the proper usage of agrochemicals to make sure that it is not used to detrimental level for both the soil and the farmers themselves. Community leaders in the area should advice farmers to used other materials to boost their soil fertility instead of depending on fertilizer alone as it’s prolonged usage may affect other soil parameters.
