Economic Impact of Cocoa Farmers’ Compliance to EU Pesticide Regulations in Osun State, Nigeria
Summary
This study investigated the economic impact of cocoa farmers’ compliance to EU pesticide regulations in Osun State, Nigeria. The multistage sampling procedure was used to select 255 respondents for the study. The data collected were analysed using probit regression, propensity score matching, and endogenous switching regression models. The results showed that the majority of the sampled cocoa farmers were male (88.24%), married (95.38%) and within 41- 60 years age bracket (78.5%) with a mean age of 50 years. Probit regression model revealed that years of formal education, access to extension services, access to credit, insecticide price, fungicide price, total farm size, and availability of pesticides were the significant determinants of compliance with EU regulations. The propensity score matching result showed that there were significant differences in income and assets acquired by the farmers that complied and those that did not comply with estimated differences of $446.91 and $714.19, respectively. The estimated value using ESM for the productive asset, non-productive asset, and cocoa income are $258.79, $325.37, and $488.14. The study concluded that compliance with EU pesticide regulations had a positive and significant impact on the income and assets of cocoa farmers.
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