Smallholder Farmers Perception and Awareness of Public Health Effects of Pesticides usage in selected Agrarian Communities, Edo Central, Edo State, Nigeria

Strong evidence exists for long-term negative health outcomes from pesticide exposure including birth defects, fetal death, neurodevelopmental disorder, cancer, and neurologic illness including Parkinson's disease. This paper therefore examined the smallholder farmers' perception and awareness of public health effects of pesticide use in Edo Central, Nigeria. Data from 400 farmers were collected through questionnaires.  Results revealed that most farmers relied on fellow farmers for information on pesticides (65.3%) rather than trained extension services (7.3%). Moderate toxic pesticides (WHO Class II) were commonly used, with a few cases of highly toxic pesticides (WHO Ib). Affordability (53.3%) and efficacy (41.8%) were the main factors driving pesticide purchases. The majority of farmers (63.9%) did not read pesticide labels before use, especially those with no formal education (77.2%) or basic education (57.8%) and those with less than 5 years of experience (54.6%). Reasons for not reading labels included reliance on success stories of other farmers (30.3%) and lack of clarity on labels (23.5%). Pesticides were often stored inside homes (43.3%), and used cans were disposed of with household waste (37%). Overall, farmers demonstrated a moderate level of awareness regarding public health effects of pesticide use. The relationship between farmers’ awareness level of public health effects of pesticides use and socio-economic variables shows that level of awareness is not dependent on age (ρ>0.05, d=0.35), educational background (ρ>0.05, d=0.27) and years of farming experience (ρ>0.05, d=0.41). The study highlights the importance of training farmers on safe and proper pesticide use to reduce risks to human health.