Abstract

The increased health effect of pesticides on the agrarian population in Africa, particularly in Cameroon is a challenging concern. Therefore, this study aims to assess the health risks and risk perceptions of market garden producers towards the effects of pesticides in Cameroon. Using a multi-stage sampling technique, a sample of 560 producers in the Noun Division, Western Region of Cameroon was obtained and an ordered Logit model was adopted to perform the analyses. The results show that 63.93 and 74.62% of producers testify that insecticides and herbicides are among the extremely hazardous products, while 43.25 and 65.36% consider fungicides and nematicides as strongly hazardous for their health. Meanwhile, some socioeconomic characteristics including education, age, health effects, training on pesticides, knowledge and awareness are the main indicators of risk perception. Consequently, 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, training program from agricultural extension services should place emphasis on imparting basic precautionary knowledge for limited producers.

Key words: Cameroon, Market garden producers, symptoms of poisoning, Ordered Logit model, agrochemical products effects, risk awareness.