Assessment of precautionary measures in agrochemicals usage among urban arable crop farmers in Oyo state, Nigeria

The paper i dentif ied the various agrochemicals used by urban farmers and analysed their level of precautionary measures taken to avert hazards associated with the use of the identified agrochemicals. A sample of 120 urban farmers were used for the study. The findings revealed that majority (86.7%) of the respondents were married with relatively high household size. The average annual income from their farming activities was N 347,649.38. The common agrochemicals used by the farmers with their trade names were paraquat, diazinion, weed-off, round-up and premextra.. It was observed that that frequency of use of herbicides (b= - 0. 2 49) and fungicides (b=0.361) had significant relationship with the level of precautionary measures observed by the farmers. Correlation analysis revealed that level of precautionary measures observed by farmers had a positive relationship with the perceived health effects (r= 0.209; P≤0.022) of agro-chemicals . It was also revealed that farmers’ knowledge of health hazards in relation to agrochemical usages was low. The study recommends rigorous campaign on the hazzards associated with the use of agro-chemicals among urban farmers by extension agents and social workers with a view to reducing the health hazards that may result from improper precautionary measures. Key W ords: Precautionary measures, Agrochemicals, Urban farmers, Arable crops