Impact of guineaworm disease on agricultural productivity in Owo local government area, Ondo state.

Of the 500 Cocoa farmers infected with guineaworm in Amurin, 74.3% of the farmers were incapacitated for 3 months without going to their farms while 25.7% mostly those who sought the orthodox form of treatment were incapacitated for about 4 weeks. This resulted in the loss of 9,566 bags of the potential harvest of the farmers which translates to N2,442,000.00 for the period. The sustantial part of this loss was from cocoa (N1, 570,000.00), a major export crop in Nigeria. The losses experienced were as a result of inability to plant and supervise the farm. An average of 45,000 mandays were lost due to guineaworm infection at a value of N54.27 k per individual for incapacitation for a day and a farmer infected with guineaworm loses 19 bags of his potential harvest within the infection duration, which translates to N4,884.00. Guineaworm disease is a major preventable cause of agricultural work loss and significant impediment to agriculture, the dominant occupation in Nigeria, which implies that guineaworm disease poses large threat to food availability.