Knowledge, Attitude and Practice on Pesticide Use among Vegetable Farmers in Madhyapur Thimi Municipality, Nepal: An...

Pesticides are groups of toxic chemical compounds designed to use for increased productivity by killing pest. Inappropriate handling of pesticides cause risk to targeted as well as non-targeted organisms and also humans. Consumption of the pesticides is increasing globally and in Nepal. The study aimed to study the existing knowledge, attitude and practices of pesticides use among vegetable farmers.

A cross-sectional study was conducted among vegetable farmers who had used pesticides in the past 12 months for their farming. A household survey was conducted among 395 farmers from January to April 2023 in Madhyapur Thimi Municipality. Ethical approval was taken from the Ethical Review Board, Nepal Health Research Council (Reference number: 1696). A semi-structured questionnaire was developed from literature review and expert advices. The data was collected through face-to-face interviews. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics using SPSS 26.

The mean age of the farm workers was 50.73±11.1 years. Of all farmers 117 (29.62%) were illiterate and 355 (89.87%) farmers received information of pesticides from friends and family. A total of 348 (88.1%) farmers had never received training on pesticide use. However, only 132 (33.41%) farmers always used to wear proper personal protective equipment in practice. Headache was the most common 57 (69.51%) health adverse symptom after pesticides application.

Our study shows that farmers have limited knowledge about pesticides and use them in unsafe ways.