Knowledge and practices on healthy usage of pesticides among farmers in Sevanagala Grama Niladhari Division

Abstract

Pesticides are chemical compounds that are used to kill pests, including insects, rodents, fungi and weeds. It has become an integral part of present day farming, and play a major role in increasing agricultural productivity. There are varieties of pesticides namely insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, bactericides, rodenticides. Insecticides include organochlorines, organophosphates, carbamates, and diethyltoluamide. Organophosphate is the most commonly used pesticide in worldwide (WHO, 2008). A descriptive cross sectional study was carried out among 210 farmers in Sevanagala Grama Niladhari Division in Monaragala District Sri Lanka to assess the Knowledge and practice on Healthy Usage of Pesticides. The study was carried out in 7 farmers’ associations using interviewer administered questionnaire. Furthermore, the study assessed sources of information on pesticides usage, knowledge on health effect of pesticides exposure, knowledge on routes of exposure of pesticides as well as prevalence of adherent to protective measures during mixing and spraying and also prevalence of adherent to proper storage and disposal. The study included farmers more than 30 years of age. The results revealed that 2/3 of farmers between the age of 30 to 50 years old. Regarding the educational level majority (81%) were studied up to Ordinal Level and only 7.6% were studied up to Advance level. 2.9% of farmers were not attended to schools, whereas 8.6% had studied up to grade 5. Almost 90% of them were not obtained training on pesticide use, handling, wear personal protective equipment. 38.3% follow the instructions of the labels when using pesticide while 27.4% were obtained information from neighbors, 12.2% information obtained from Agricultural Supervises and 10.9% from pesticides Salesman. Only 11.2% were obtained information from other sources. 63% of farmers were aware of adverse effects of pesticides. 16.1% of them were aware of Headache, 16.9% aware of dizziness, 10.6% aware of irritation of eyes.12.7% aware of skin rashes, 7.4% aware of excessive salivation, 15.6% aware of cancers, and 19.1% aware of renal failure. Only 1.6% of farmers were aware of developmental disorders. Reported knowledge of the routes of absorption included mainly injection (47%) and inhalational (32.2%). Only 20.8% aware of dermal absorption. Results also demonstrated that while using pesticides, 31.8% of farmers use protective cloths, 27.5% of farmers use head covering, 17.1% of farmers use mask, 12.1% of farmers use boots and 9.4% of farmers use gloves. Only 1.9% farmer’s use eye protectives.90.8 % of farmers use sticks to mix pesticides. Only 9.2% are used hands during mixing. Vast majority of farmer spray pesticides towards the wind direction. While spraying pesticides 62.7 % of farmers have habit of betel chewing and 37.3% of farmer drink water or tea. Result reveled that after spraying pesticides, 36.6% of farmer remove contaminated cloths, 35.3% of farmers having bath using soap and 28.1% of farmers wash hands using soap. 75.4% of farmers throw empty bottle elsewhere of the farm while 24.6% of farmers’ burn the bottle. 53.4 % of farmer store empty bottle away from the children. 45.8% of farmers kept bottle in store room. Only 0.8% of farmers store empty bottle near to bed room. The study concluded that 51.4% of farmers have good knowledge of pesticides whereas majority (81%) of farmer’s moderately adherent to protective measures. We emphasize value of training programs and awareness programs for better practice of farmer’s pesticide usage.