Impact of Membership in Agricultural Organizations on Cocoa Farmers’ Preferences for Approved Pesticides in Osun and Ondo States of Nigeria

Cocoa is one of Nigeria’s major cash crops, and its production is directly related to the effective utilization of pesticides. Agricultural organizations may promote the use of approved pesticides in cocoa production. However, empirical evidence of how and to what extent agricultural organizations facilitate the farmers’ preference for approved pesticides remains unclear. To address this knowledge gap, this study investigated the impact of membership in agricultural organizations on cocoa farmersc’ preferences for approved pesticides in Southwestern Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure was employed to select 200 cocoa farmers for the study. This paper is based on a farm household survey, and the data collected were for the 2021/2022 cropping season. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, conjoint analysis, and ordered probit regression models. The results revealed that many of the cocoa farmers were male (71.14%), married (79.5%), fell within the age range of 41 to 60 years (50.6%), belonged to an organization (60.4%), had a family size of 4 to 7 persons (65%), had formal educa­tion (73.5%) and access to credit (67%). The result further indicated that the preference range that would deliver the most utility for farmers would include the following product attributes: reduced price (1.650), high efficacy (1.484), ease of use (1.453), harmless (0.519), and imported (0.334). Ordered probit estimates revealed that age, gender, education, farm size, membership of agricultural organizations, and access to credit significantly influenced cocoa farmers’ preference for approved pesticides. The results suggested that participation in agricultural organizations significantly influenced cocoa farmers’ pref­erence for approved pesticides. It was concluded that policy strategies aimed at improving cocoa farmers’ preference for ap­proved pesticides must consider agricultural organizations.