Practices and Knowledge about Safe Pesticide use- a Cross sectional Study amongst Farmers of a district in Odisha, India
Keywords:
Pesticide, Farmers, Knowledge, Safe use, AgriculturalAbstract
Background: With agriculture being the second largest workforce sector in the world, farmers constitute a major part of our population. Their knowledge and practices on safe pesticide use is of paramount importance. Objectives: The study aimed to investigate the farmers’ knowledge and practices on safe use of pesticides. Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted among 421 farmers who worked in agricultural lands, from December 2020 to September 2022, in the second populous district of the state. Data was collected using a semi structured, researcher-made interview schedule with three sections-demographic and occupational data, knowledge and practices on safe pesticide use. Data was entered into Microsoft excel spreadsheet and analyzed using Epi Info statistical software (version 7.2.3.1). All categorical data was presented using frequency and percentages & continuous data in mean±standard deviation. Results: In the study among 421 farmers engaged in agriculture practices, their mean age was 40.53±6.7 years (18 to 65 years). Maximum (62.94%) were in the age-group of 40-60 years; 83.37 % were males and 79.33% literate. All the farmers reported using pesticides, 47.50% of them had an experience of more than 15 years in farming and around 68.65% were using pesticides since 5-15 years. The overall knowledge was poor (68.4%), only 7.37% of them were trained in pest management and practices were poorer (61.53%). Conclusion: The farmers used pesticides extensively. The overall knowledge on safe use of pesticides was poor, their practices still poorer. Most of them had not attended any training on integrated pest management.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Tapas Ranjan Senapati, Ipsa Mohapatra, Basanta Kumar Behera, Smruti Ranjan Nayak, Ansuman Kar, Prem Sagar Panda
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