ABSTRACT

The study investigated the access and use of agrochemical among women farmers. The following objectives guided the study which were to; examine the socioeconomic characteristics of the women farmers, ascertain the farmers awareness of agrochemicals, determine the types and sources of agrochemicals available to the farmers, ascertain the level of access to agrochemicals by the respondents, ascertain the extent of use of agrochemicals by farmers, ascertain farmers’ perceived effect of agrochemical use on agricultural production, and determine the constraints to the use of agrochemical by the farmers. The study made use of a multi-stage sampling procedure in selecting 180 respondents for the study. Data for the study were realized using a structured questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics, such as frequency and regression analysis. The major results showed that 70% were aware of the chemical for the control of insect pest, 71.1% were aware of the chemical for the control of weeds, 53.4% were aware of chemical for the control of weeds before planting, 67.6% were aware of the chemical for the control of weeds after planting while, 68.9% were aware of the right fertilizer to use for their crops. Decis (69.97%), Attack (65.53%) and Profexsupe (38.87%) had the largest proportion on the record of availability of agrochemicals by the women farmers. Most (97.8) of the respondents bought and would buy their agrochemicals from the Open Market. The grand mean of 2.53 affirmed that respondents had high level of access to agrochemicals. Furthermore, the grand mean of 1.94 affirmed that the respondents generally had a low extent of use of agrochemicals. The respondents had a positive perception on the use of agrochemicals as affirmed with the grand mean of 2.54. The constraints faced by the respondents were inadequate access to capital (88.8%), unavailability of agrochemicals (78.8%), poor extension service (72.2%) and lack of safety measures (59.4%). The result of hypothesis one showed that there was a significant relationship between access and use of agrochemicals at 5% level of probability. The result of hypothesis two showed that tenure (1%), farm size (1%), level education (1%) and farming experience (5%) were the determinants of extent of use of agrochemicals in the study area. The study concluded that access to agrochemical usually influence the extent of use of agrochemicals. It is therefore recommended that; Farmers should form cooperative in order to pool resources together to solve their problem, especially as it relates to accessing needed agrochemicals and Government should do well in developing policies that will ensure increased access to credit and arable land for our women farmers. There should be proper orientation from extension agencies, both government and private on the safety measures in the use of agrochemicals to curb the hazardous effects of agrochemicals.