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ABSTRACT
The importance of cocoa (Theobroma cacao) to Nigeria’s economy cannot be overemphasized, as Nigeria gets her foreign exchange earnings from crude petroleum, yet cocoa remains the Nigeria’s highest foreign exchange earner among all agricultural commodities. The aim of this study is to assess the pesticides used in controlling black pod disease of cocoa and their efficacy across selected cocoa farms in Edo state. Three cocoa farms were visited in Edo state and with the aid of a structured questionnaire, responses from the cocoa farmers were obtained and the data was computed. Amongst the 40 farmers questioned, 25 of them were male while 15 were female and they varied between 26 years of age to 60 years. Their education status were in the following: 2 farmers were educated below secondary level, 11 of them had their SSCE and 27 of them had their B.Sc. The variety of cocoa found in the farms visited were forastero and trinitaro. Some of the fungicide product used by the cocoa farmers were Red force, Ridomil, Champ DP, Mackecknie Gold and Ultimax plus. 21 numbers of the farmers spray these fungicides during rainy season because the phytophthora fungus grows only in moist area, while 19 numbers of them starts to spray just before pest occurrence period. Among the 40 farmers interviewed, Ridomil was rated as very effective by 25 farmers, 10 farmers rated just effective, while 4 farmers rated moderately effective and 1 farmer rated not effective. According to examined farmers, some of the symptoms associated with the use of these fungicide products if safety measures are not taken includes skin and eye irritation, cough, stomach upset, headache and dizziness. Hence the difficulties that cocoa farmers encounter is caused by a variety of limitations. However, to identify new approaches to increase the productivity and sustainability of cocoa production, we must invest in cocoa research and development in other improve the nation’s Gross domestic product (GDP).
