Socioeconomic factors affecting insecticide use in cowpea production in Kano State

Insecticide is an indispensable input in cowpea production and farmers do not, in most cases, use the recommended dilution and application rates to mix insecticide and these reduce potency of such insecticide. It is against this milieu that this study was carried out to determine the socioeconomic factors affecting insecticide use in cowpea production, using Kano state as the study area. Cross sectional data were collected from two of the three zones in the study area and two blocks in each zone. A total of 100 respondents were interviewed through a simple random. sampling procedure. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics and OLS regression estimates. The study found out among others that the average age of cowpea farmers sampled was 44 years, all males, married with an average of 12 persons per household. The average farm size cultivated was 3.54 ha under an intercrop anangement with insecticide use at an average of three times per growing season. The socioeconomic factors affecting insecticide use was determined to be price of insecticide ( DC o.os), cowpea output ( oc o.os), farming experience ( DC o. 10), and formal edU;cation level ( DC 0.10); thus indicating the importance of these variables to cowpea production in the study area. The study recommended among others a price reduction policy to allow easy access of farmers to this input