Farmers’ involvement in cocoa production sharp practices in rural communities of Ife Area, Osun State, Nigeria

The study investigated farmers’ involvement in cocoa production sharp practices in Ife area, Osun State with a view to mitigating the challenge of farmers’ engagement in cocoa production sharp practices. It specifically described the socio-economic characteristics of cocoa farmers, examined their awareness of best practices in cocoa production and their perception about sharp practices. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed to select 110 and 16 respondents subjected to structured interview schedule and key informant interview respectively. Data were analysed using descriptive such as frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics such as regression. The study revealed among others that the respondents had 50.35±13.43 mean years of age, male (70.9%) and literate (64.7%). Majority (91.0%) of the respondents had high awareness level, perceived cocoa production sharp practices negatively (mean = 2.93) and involved in cocoa production sharp practices (moderately =65.5% and highly = 20.9%). Also, significant relationship existed between farmers’ age (β=0.013), years of formal education (β=0.014), income (β=2.514) and farmers’ involvement in cocoa production sharp practices. It was therefore concluded that although most farmers had high awareness of cocoa production best practices and perceived sharp practices negatively, the vast majority were involved in cocoa production sharp practices. Training and retraining intervention on the health implications of engaging in sharp practices and the need to embrace best practices in cocoa production is of utmost importance.