Agrochemical Quality Assurance Management among Farmers for Improved Crop Production in South Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

This study was carried out to determine the quality assurance of farmers in agrochemical management for improved crop production in South Eastern Nigeria.  The specific objectives of the study were to determine the quality assurance of farmers in identifying the types of agrochemicals to be used on crop, adhering to standards for agrochemical use, identifying the challenges in controlling the excessive use of agrochemicals, keeping safety measures for agrochemical use. Four research question were raised. A survey research design was used for the study. The population of the study was 384 individuals which comprised 186 Agricultural Extension Workers and 198 Crop Farmers. The instrument for Data Collection was a 51-item structured questionnaire, which was developed from literature reviewed. It was titled: Agrochemical Management Quality Assurance Questionnaire (AMQAQ). The instrument was validated by five (5) experts. The reliability coefficient of the instrument was .85 and .89 using Cronbach Alpha reliability method. The data collected was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics such as arithmetic mean and Need Performance Index (NPI) were used to answer the research questions while inferential statistics of chi-square (precisely, chi-square test of goodness -of- fit) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. There was low quality assurance (LQA) on all the items investigated by this study. The findings among others revealed that crop farmers in the South Eastern Nigeria need to be assured of the quality of agrochemical and its proper management practices to improve crop performance so as to enable good production and reasonable farm produce. On the basis of the findings, it was recommended that policies on agrochemical management practices should be implemented by the government and non-governmental organizations to increase the adaptive level of farmers.