Assessment of health hazards and risk perceptions of market garden producers towards the effects of pesticides in Western Region Cameroon

Abstract Objective and MethodsThe spraying of chemicals pesticides is a key factor for the improved quality and productivity of agricultural products. Nevertheless, the increased health issues among the agrarian population in Africa, and particularly in Cameroon, involves to lay an emphasis on how producers’ risk perception toward pesticides can contribute to mitigate their effects. The risk assessment of pesticides on the literature focuses mainly on the pesticide itself, but the studies on producers’ risk perception and the drivers of this perception on their behavior are insufficiently known. Therefore, this article assess the health risks and risk perceptions of 560 producers towards the effects of pesticides in 7 subdivisions of Western region Cameroon. A cross-sectional dataset was use during the period of July 2020 to May 2021 for our interviews and an ordered Logit model was use to perform our analyses.ResultsThe results showed 74.62% and 63.93% of producers attested that herbicides and insecticides are among the extremely hazardous products. Otherwise, excessive sweating (61.07%), general tiredness (61.96%), nausea and vomiting (54.46%) and headaches (53.04%), were among the main symptoms of health issues reported. In addition, some socioeconomic characteristics including health, age, education, training and awareness of producer were the main significant drivers of risk perception.Conclusion and recommendationsOur observations led to fundamental implications for policymakers, as the overuse of pesticides and their negative effects on the health of Farmers may be aggravated, if there is no support by the integration of social norms. Furthermore, more training program from agricultural extension services should place emphasis on imparting basic precautionary knowledge for limited producers.