Nigerian Journal of Rural Sociology Vol. 17, No. 2, 2017 2ERCEIVED EFFECTS OF HUARRY ACTIVITIES ON COCOA 2RODUCTION IN YEWA NORT. LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF OGUN STATE, NIGERIA Olorode, I. A., Adejuwon, O. T. and Oyesola, O. 4. .epartment of Agricultural E0tension and Rural .evelopment, niversity of 2badan, 2badan, Nigeria Correspondence contact detailsA opeyemiadejuwonJgmail.com, tokunbooyesolaJgmail.com; 08069039762, 08023250458 A STRACT There had been an increase in the number of Duarries in Nigeria in the 19 th centuries. The activities of the Duarries have detrimental effects on the environment and more importantly on permanent crops; most especially cocoa which is a major commercial crop in the study area. Therefore, this study determined the perceived effects of Duarry activities on cocoa production in )ewa north local government area of Ogun State, Nigeria. A multi1 stage sampling procedure was used in selecting 120 cocoa farmers in the study area. .ata collected were analy6ed using descriptive statistical tools like mean, percentage, freDuency counts, standard deviation and inferential statistics like Chi1sDuare, PP5C and t1test. All (100L, of the farmers were married, with mean age of 53 a8.4years. 9owever, 42.5L of the cocoa farmers have a household si6e of between 5 and 6, while 86.7L of them had formal education with majority finishing secondary school. Environmental problems identified as being severe by respondents were soil erosion, air pollution and massive deforestation, while problems associated with Duarry activities were rock blasting, rock powdering and transportation. There is significant difference in the yield of cocoa production before and after the establishment of the cement industry in 2011 in the study area (tN120.851, pN0.0000,. Environmental mitigation measures should be promulgated among communities and Duarry industries. Keywords5 Suarry activities, cocoa production, environmental problems INTRODUCTION the location of major settlement, labour and Overcoming hunger remains one of the infrastructural amenities. 2n developing countries most daunting challenges facing humanity. The such as Nigeria, the citing of industries is threat of starvation looms most seriously over determined by various criteria, some of which are Africa, where an estimated 33 percent of the environmentally unacceptable and thus pose population largely children and women suffer from serious threat to public health ( NEP, 1990,. hunger ( SA2., 1994,. 5oreover, per capital food The ministry of Solid 5inerals in the production in Africa has steadily declined by 33 country issued licenses for Duarry activities in the percent over the past 25 years (FAO, 2012,. study area, to e0ploit appro0imately 135 million 9unger and famine in some African regions have tone tons of limestone deposit in the state (O52CC, been particularly debilitating and widespread 2000,. Of these deposits, the )ewa area of the state (Thrupp and 5egateli, 1999,. Environmental has more than 80L of the deposit. This necessitated problems have become a key issue globally. The the concentration of many prospecting companies environment and its significance on human life within the region. Coincidentally, this area is have increasingly come to national and regarded as one of the food basket of the state international dimension. 2ndustrial pollution is a which provides staple such as mai6e, cassava, yam, major environmental problem in Nigeria. 2t arises vegetables, and tree crops such as cocoa, oil palm, from lack of proper control of pollutant from cashew and timber products with prospects for industries. 2ncreased development of land for international market. industrial use received greater impetus in the post1 Cocoa ( heobroma cacao , was introduced independence era when national industrial policy to Iest Africa sub region from 4ra6il and into revolved around import substitution as a panacea Nigeria from Fernando Po in the year 1874 for unfavourable terms of trade that Nigeria faced (Adegeye, 1996,. 2t was first cultivated in the which featured industries in te0tile, breweries, western region of Nigeria in 1890. 2ts cultivation leather, tanning, pulp and paper, detergent, steel gained prominence rapidly in Nigeria such that by and Duarry activities, all of which have 1965, Nigeria became the second largest producer implications for overall Duality in the affected of cocoa in the world (Adegeye, 1996,. Cocoa is areas. 5ost industries that have the potential of produced mainly in the rainforest area of the seriously degrading the environment are largely country, known as cocoa belt. The main producing urban1based (5agbagbeola, 2001,. states are Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Edo, 2deally, the citing of industries should .elta, Cross Rivers and Akwa 2bom. According to achieve a balance between socio1economic and Adegeye (1996,, over 50L of the total Duantity of environmental considerations. Relevant factors are cocoa produced for e0port or utilised locally per availability and access to raw materials, the annum comes from Ondo State. pro0imity of water sources, a market for the The discovery and e0ploitation of products, the cost of effective transportation, and petroleum, the black gold led to decline in the 65 Nigerian Journal of Rural Sociology Vol. 17, No. 2, 2017 importance attached to the golden crop cocoa. production of erstwhile agrarian communities. Nevertheless, cocoa still remains the second largest Although several environmental related studies foreign earner after petroleum (Adegeye, 1996,. 2n have been conducted on industrial pollution, it is Nigeria, cocoa has been the main agricultural stake necessary that the perception of the people is of the national economy until early 1970s when sought on the environmental pollution that is crude oil was discovered in the country in usually associated with Duarry activities and the commercial Duantity. 9owever, cocoa has effect on cocoa production in the study area. remained a valuable crop and major foreign Therefore, the study determined the perceived e0change earner among agricultural commodity effects of Duarry activities on cocoa production in e0ports of the country (Akinbola, 2001; Ogunleye )ewa North 3ocal -overnment Area of Ogun and Oladeji, 2007,. State. Nigeria>s cocoa production output has The specific objectives are to; however declined from over 300,000 to 100,000 a. identify the socio1economic characteristics tones with average annual rate of 8.3L decline of cocoa farmers in )ewa North 3-A. during 199211996 to 1.8L during the 199712001 b. determine perceived effects of Duarry and 1.2L during 200212006 (Adegeye, 1996,. activities on cocoa production in the study .espite the dwindling production of cocoa in area Nigeria, the crop still contributes to nation>s c. ascertain the perceived environmental economic development. 2n terms of foreign problem associated with Duarry activities e0change, no single agricultural e0port commodity in the study area has earned more than cocoa. Apart from providing e0change to the e0porting countries, cocoa is a 9ypothesis of the study stated that there is means of conserving foreign e0change. This is no significant difference in the level of cocoa achieved by producing cocoa based products, for production before and after the establishment of instance cocoa1butter, cocoa cake, cocoa powder, Duarry factories in the study area cocoa wine and so on, locally instead of importing them. 2n recent years, Nigeria has lost her leading MET.ODOLOGY role in e0portation of cocoa. This was due to Study area - The study was conducted in downward trend in cocoa production (Adegeye, )ewa North 3ocal -overnment area of Ogun State. 1996,. A number of reasons have been given for )ewa North local government is one of the twenty the decline in cocoa production and inability of local government areas in Ogun State. 2t is located cocoa industry to increase output. Some of these to the west of Ogun State bordering the Republic of reasons include small farm holdings, transportation 4enin. 2ts headDuarters is Ayetoro and it has an mode, unavailability of human labour, low capital area of 2,087km2 and a population of 183,844 and variation in climatic factors. (NPC, 2006,. 2t shares boundary with Abeokuta The world is changing rapidly and North, )ewa South, 2meko1Afon local government agriculture has become more comple0, more and Republic of 4enin in the north1east, south, intensive and demanding on the land. 9owever, north1west and west respectively. The study area is there are some other sectors of the economy that also blessed with mineral deposits such as compete for land with the agricultural sector limestone, clay and kaolin which remain untapped particularly the industrial sector. The industrial until recently when attention in being drawn to sector does not only compete for land with them (O52CC, 2000,. Five of the fourteen major agricultural sector but also harms agriculture. The communities in )ewa North 3ocal -overnment modern industrial version of alchemy, which Area have limestone deposits in commercial transforms the harmless natural elements into a Duality and they are also involved in cocoa pervasive to0ic burden, harms agriculture. Air, soil production. These communities are 2bese, Komi1 and water pollution freDuently reduces agricultural Oba, 2masai, 2gbogila and 2gua. yields, lower health status, increase the prices that consumers of agricultural products must pay and Sampling procedure and sample siBe - alter the returns accruing to owners of agricultural Five (5, communities