Abstract:
Pesticides are often used to manage pests and diseases to enhance
agricultural productivity. However, pesticides have negative impacts on
human and animal health as well as on the environment if not properly used
and handled. Hence, this study aimed at assessing the knowledge, attitude
and practices of smallholder farmers in agricultural pesticides utilization in
three major cereal producing districts of Jimma zone, Ethiopia. For the study
original data collected from 140 randomly selected farmers using a pre-tested
structured questionnaire and key informant interviews with district level
experts were used. The results showed that 98% of the sample households use
pesticides; of which 45% purchase pesticides from open market. Furthermore,
while the herbicide 2, 4-D was used by 57% of the households, 48% of the
respondents did not know the type of pesticides they used. Only 30% read the
instructions and less than 40% understand the signs on pesticide containers.
Most households perceived that pesticides are useful; however, 98.5% of them
witnessed its negative effects. Some health related discomforts reported include
nausea, vomiting, headache, and skin irritation with the respective shares of
68%, 18%, 12% and 2%. Ninety five percent of the respondents believed that it
is possible to minimize the negative effects of pesticides. But, 80% use normal
clothes for spraying pesticides; 40% wash spray equipments in yard; 23%
throw pesticide containers in open field and 32% reuse pesticide containers for
other purposes. Findings of the study revealed that there is mismatch among
knowledge, perception and practice of the farmers. Hence, it is important to
carefully design pesticides supply chain and train farmers to create awareness
about the careful use of pesticide, and disposal of the leftover and containers.
